Quick update: additonal selling in Euro on rumor that France downgrade is imminent. Risk rally takes a halt in early US session as earning results from JPMorgan Chase dragged US stock futures down. While the report was basically inline with analyst estimates, it did show trading and corporate deal-making business depressed by European debt crisis. Investors are also cautious ahead of the earning reports next week, which include Wells Fargo, American Express, IBM and Intel. Dollar is given a mild lift by risk aversion with dollar index back above 81 level. Italy raised EUR 4.75b at the three-year debt auction today, meeting it’s maximum target. Yield was impressively down to 4.83%, from 5.62% at an auction just two weeks ago. Though, bid-to-cover ratio dropped to 1.22, down from 1.36. The result … Read entire article »

By: Barbara Zigah In Asian trading, the Euro steadied following a strong response to the Spanish and Italian debt auctions held yesterday and analysts suggest further that the Euro may now be stabilizing against the Australian Dollar. The Spanish debt auction had better than expected demand, with twice as much sold as had been planned; Italy’s auction of 1-year debt was also shown to have strong demand and acceptable yields, giving rise to expectations that today’s auction of longer-dated sovereign debt might also be well attended. As reported at 12:19 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro was trading against the U.S. Dollar at $1.2819, a gain of 0.8% and well off the 16-month low struck earlier this week. Resistance is pegged near $1.2860. The Euro also rose 0.2% against the Aussie, trading … Read entire article »