One of the weakest performers today certainly was the Pound as Bank of England Meeting Minutes revealed that two members voted for a larger expansion of the bond purchase program than the £50 billion the bank agreed to in early February. The jury is still out on the actual path of the economy in the middle of the first quarter but with attention again focusing on more money printing from the BOE the GBP’s prospects look weaker than they did to start the week.

With the Greek second bailout agreed to, but with the problem of Greece still not fully resolved, attention now turns to the latest economic figures from the euro zone. In the European Wednesday trading session we see the release of the preliminary readings for manufacturing and services PMI’s for February which could serve as a catalyst to give the EUR/USD direction as we head into the second half of the week.

Following the agreement on the Greek 2nd bailout and a “buy the rumor, sell the news” response in currency markets, participants will be looking for the next important catalyst to determine sentiment. That catalyst may come from the release of China’s HSBC preliminary version of its February manufacturing PMI.The report carries important weight for higher-yielding commodity and growth linked currencies such as the Australian and New Zealand dollars. We preview the impact on the AUD/USD pair in our preview.

The British government presented its public sector net borrowing figures earlier this afternoon and indicated in the report was a surplus of 7.75 billion GBP. These figures displayed the largest monthly surplus in public finances since 2008. While the…

Tradervox (Dublin) - The Greek crisis has moved closer to being solved after the finance ministers agreed to approve the 130 billion-euro bailout plan. The 17-nation currency advanced against major currency but later pared against some aft…

US economic data continued to post positive surprises again this week, with labor market, housing, and manufacturing coming in better than expected. From the most recent FOMC Minutes we know that the conditions for more easing would be a fall in prices below the Fed’s target. While the CPI data is not likely to have as big an impact compared to the latest headlines out of Greece, it will hold clues to the direction the FOMC will take next when it comes to stimulus, and therefore will be important to where the US Dollar index heads next.

Euro is gaining the levels on the back of Ben Barnake’s speech who again expressed concerns over slow recovery of US. The single currency is has come above 1.3000 levels and approaching the opening price of the day. The pair is still down 0.20%…

The US dollar spent much of the day today range trading against most of its main currency rivals, including the euro, British pound and Swiss franc. Traders were hesitant to bet against the greenback ahead of possible news on a Greek debt swap deal. …

Today’s non-farm payroll data came in very strong with an uptick in manufacturing hiring adding to robust gains in the services industries. This has strong implications for risk assets, and the prospects for the US economy as well as for global growth. The reaction was a strong gain in US equities, and very good performance by commodity currencies against the European higher yielders. The USD had a mixed reaction, declining against the AUD, NZD, and CAD, but strengthening against the EUR and GBP, and the JPY.

Key to end this week will be Friday’s non-farm payroll data. December’s 200K gain was a big boost to the idea that momentum in the US economy is maintaining, if not building on itself, even if temporarily. A better than expected reading can give risk sentiment a pop, benefiting “higher yielding” currencies at the expense of the US dollar and Japanese Yen. A disappointing figure would help risk aversion as any signs of slowdown in the US would increase concerns about the drag on the global economy.

With the Greek second bailout agreed to, but with the problem of Greece still not fully resolved, attention now turns to the latest economic figures from the euro zone. In the European Wednesday trading session we see the release of the preliminary readings for manufacturing and services PMI’s for February which could serve as a catalyst to give the EUR/USD direction as we head into the second half of the week.

Tradervox (Dublin) - The Greek crisis has moved closer to being solved after the finance ministers agreed to approve the 130 billion-euro bailout plan. The 17-nation currency advanced against major currency but later pared against some aft…

Tradervox.com (Dublin - Greece has finally won a much needed second bailout after the European governments squeezed compromises from the private investors and shielded the eurozone from a possible default by tapping into the ECB’s profits…

Well its 3AM in Brussels, and Reuters has ran the headline and story that a deal has been reached with the bailout at €130 billion and the goal of getting Greece to reach 121% of debt to GDP in 2020. Pretty close to what was originally intended.

Friday was a remarkable day as far as the Euro’s performance is concerned. The EUR/USD had one of its typical blockbuster days we have become accustomed to. It fell 26 pips below its 1.3000 resistance point earlier in the week before rallying t…

Following the agreement on the Greek 2nd bailout and a “buy the rumor, sell the news” response in currency markets, participants will be looking for the next important catalyst to determine sentiment. That catalyst may come from the release of China’s HSBC preliminary version of its February manufacturing PMI.The report carries important weight for higher-yielding commodity and growth linked currencies such as the Australian and New Zealand dollars. We preview the impact on the AUD/USD pair in our preview.

The Greek bailout package is certainly dominating the news today, however, there is other news around the market. The USD has continued its strong stance against the JPY. Going into this afternoon the USD/JPY is trading at 79.64. This can be attribute…

By cutting the reserve ration requirement (RRR) by 50 basis points it should inject around 400 billion yuan ($63 billion) of fresh lending into the economy. Bank lending was very weak in January. The move should be interpreted as a “risk positive” event and can help boost the Asia-Pacific higher yielding commodity and growth linked currencies – the AUD and NZD – to start Sunday’s trading.

While most of the attention this week has been sucked up by the ongoing situation in the euro zone and the Greek bailout we had several interesting fundamental releases in other countries which may help to secure some of the conventional wisdom prior to this week. The four key indicators are New Zealand retail sales, Australia’s employment data, UK retail sales, and Canada’s inflation report. The take a look at each of these and what it could mean for their respective currencies.

Today’s US releases on jobless claims and housing starts came in better than expected. While only helping to ease a portion of the S&P500 losses from overnight, the news did help the USD/JPY to extend its gains, with the pair looking to attack 79.50.

Australia will be releasing its latest reading on employment change in the upcoming Asian session. This release is very important because it should be crucial to what the RBA does next in terms of interest rates. Looking at the AUD/USD prior to the release in a 4H view it has some clear resistance and support zones, which will likely be tested one way or the other following this tier-1 economic report. We also highlight recent positive macro data and shifting expectations around RBA rate cuts in 2012.