Asia Open 23rd January 2012 - A Good read

An Article from Compass Expect a quiet week due to Chinese new year !!

"After rising to almost 1.3000 during the Asian session on Friday, it has been one way traffic for the EUR since as it opens this morning below 1.2900. The common currency failed to hold onto gains despite the Institute of International Finance's Managing Director, the lobby group representing creditors negotiating with the Greek government, saying that “the elements of an unprecedented voluntary private-sector” accord are coming into place. An agreement will be vital and is a key milestone for Greece to receive further financing aid before it faces a EUR 14.5 billion bond payment in late March. The Greek debt accord is by no means finalised as the terms for an agreement to swap old bonds with new 30 year securities which may pay coupons as high as 4.75% have yet to be agreed. Furthermore, hedge funds holding Greek bonds may not accept the deal as they may look to a more imminent finalisation of their exposures by looking to trigger the payments from credit default swaps. At the same time Greek officials are also meeting with the ECB, EC and IMF, the “troika” on a new EUR 130 billion financing for the nation. The Greek tragedy is reaching its climax. Despite all the event risk in the markets and falling commodity prices, the Australian dollar managed to gain rising to as high as 1.0496 this morning.   Equity markets in the US rose for the third consecutive week on continued better than expected economic data releases and good corporate earnings reports. The S&P 500 closed less than one point higher at 1,315 on the day but was 2% higher for the week with good earnings from Goldman Sachs and eBay countering fears over Europe. Earlier, European bourses closed lower with the DAX losing 0.18% 6,404 while the FTSE fell 0.22% 5,729.   Commodity prices fell on Friday lead by a decline in crude and copper futures. The CRB index has closed 2.05 points lower at 309.91. WTI crude fell more than 2.2% to $98.30 on the back of Chinese manufacturing which contracted for a third straight month. Precious metals rose with gold higher by 0.57% to $1,664 while silver surged more than 3.8% to $31.65. Soft commodities were mixed while copper lost 1.46%. This week we have the Chinese New Year holidays across Asia. In Australia, there is the release of PPI q/q figures."