EU Morning Report - "Euro will survive us all"

The euro recorded gains against its major counterparts in the middle of the never-ending Greek negotiations. The resilience that the euro has exhibited over the past few days, given the lack of positive developments and negative outlook portrayed by a number of reports, brings to mind a statement made by Eurogroup chairman Juncker; “euro will survive us all”. Versus the US dollar, the single currency had a flat day, but it nevertheless recorded a new high value for 2012. Against the Swiss franc, the euro rose to 1.2101 from 1.2086, ahead of the crucial Swiss inflation figures due tomorrow. Swiss National Bank intervened in the markets and set a floor at 1.20 on EURCHF in September, 2011. It subsequently named deflationary pressure, as the number one reason for further intervention and this makes Consumer Price Index release tomorrow particularly interesting. Versus the British pound, the euro advanced to 0.8379 from 0.8337. Market participants will closely monitor the European Central Bank rate announcement at 12:45 GMT and the press conference that will follow at 13:30 GMT.

The US dollar produced positive results against a basket of currencies ahead of the Unemployment Claims for past week due later today. The labor market is at the centre of every report on the US economy with the unemployment rate recently falling. Versus the Canadian dollar, the US dollar rose to 0.9965 from 0.9952.

The British pound dived to 1.5809 from 1.5892 versus the US dollar. Bank of England will announce its rate and asset purchases decision later today. Market consensus is that the central bank will leave its rate untouched but will announce additional GBP 50 billion to buy high-quality assets financed by the issue of Treasury bills.

Oil prices rose to 98.93 dollars a barrel from 98.36. Gold dropped to 1732.06 from 1744.90 an ounce against the US dollar. Versus the euro, gold fell to 1307.03 from 1316.26. Silver moved down to 33.8956 from 34.0872 dollars an ounce.

Equities	EUROPE		US		ASIA3
	FTSE 100	-0.24%			S&P 500	0.22%			NIKKEI	-0.15%
	DAX	-0.08%			DJIA	0.04%			HIS	0.03%
	CAC	-0.05%			NASDAQ	0.41%			CSI 300	0.04%