Very little to report from overnight activity as there was little to speak of. I can only imagine everyone was watching Madonna lip sync at the half time show. Of note however was the fact that risk opened Asia with a gap lower and has since then spent most of

The euphoria from Friday’s US payrolls number that propelled risk higher has faded today as Greece takes centre stage. The technocratic government led by Lucas Papademos is trying to convince the three main political parties that more austerity is needed. A statement late last night said that an agreement between

Euro zone retail sales declined unexpectedly in December, said the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat on Friday. Retail sales fell 0.4 per cent from November after declining by the same amount in October.

On Friday, the payrolls triggered an interesting reaction on the currency market. The strong US labour market report supported the dollar and not risk sensitive currencies like the euro. This weekend, uncertainty on the Greek debt talks is pushing EUR/USD closer toward the first significant support level.

Friday’s US employment data was extremely encouraging, with the headline non-farm payrolls coming in much stronger than expected at 243k (compared to consensus estimates looking for 140k), and the unemployment rate unexpectedly dropping to 8.3% from 8.5% prior. The release led to a short-term uptick in risk sentiment characterized by

The combination of an overstretched record short EUR position and the recent announcment by the FED regarding (low) interest rates and the potential for QE3 triggered a round a long dollar liquidation in the week to last Tuesday.

Another week of Greek debt-swap talks is coming ahead after the failure of the Greek government and private sector bondholders to reach an agreement over the size of losses and interest on new loans last week.

The euro appeared weaker against its major counterparts as markets open with Greece running out of time to meet international demands for more austerity. Various reports are suggesting that Greek leaders have been given until noon, to decide on how to react to Troika’s demands ,however this time is different.