• The USD and JPY trade higher supported by a spike in risk aversion as stocks decline and the European press reports that there is less chance of aid for Greece as the Greek PM comments on Germany's Nazi past, EUR pressured by speculation of Greek debt downgrade, GBP pressured by UK debt concern and a drop in UK Q4 business investment, AUD trades lower despite RBA rate hike speculation
• Focus turns to today's release of US jobless claims and durable goods, Bernanke's second day of testimony before Congress and the Healthcare summit
• JPY trades at one year high versus EUR on concern that Greek sovereign debt rating may be lowered, S&P says that it may consider lowering the Greek debt rating by the end of March
• Australia's Q4 CAPEX rose by 5.5%, RBA watcher McCrann says the RBA is likely to hike rates 25bps Tuesday, AUD lower
• EU February business climate falls to -0.98, economic sentiment at 95.9 compared to 96 last month, EUR lower
• GBP trades at a nine-month low pressured by concern about UK debt, UK business investment declined by 5.8% in Q4, a 0.1% gain was expected
• Greek strikes spread in protest to the governments plans to cut spending
• Bernanke says sustained recovery still in question, rates to stay low, sharp decline in US consumer confidence fuels risk aversion
• US equity markets set to open lower, European equities 0.25% lower, Nikkei closed 96 points lower

Upcoming Events

• US - Thursday, initial jobs claims for week ending 02/20 will be released expected at 455k compared to 473k last week along with January durable goods expected at 1% compared to 1.4% last month
• CAN - Thursday, no major Canadian economic data is due for release today

Download Report(s):

File	Description	File size
100225_US_Morning_Notes.pdf		49 Kb