Guest post by John Benjamen at Orbex

Trading was thin with most of the markets still recovering from the Christmas blues. Friday saw the sole economic data from Japan being released during early Asian trading session while most of the major trading hubs were closed on account of Boxing Day.

There was little to no reaction from the Yen crosses, despite the economic data and the same theme continued across most of the currency pairs.

Trading is expected to be relatively light today in the run up to the New Years Eve celebrations later in the week. However, there are some ongoing developments which are likely to bring market reaction in what could turn out to be a bit volatile trading environment in view of the lack of volumes.

Over the weekend, Japan unveiled a fiscal stimulus package worth 3.5 trillion Yen aimed towards targeted segments of the economy and the government expects the new spending would boost the Japanese GDP by as much as 0.7%.

In the Eurozone, Greece will host its final round of presidential voting, which failed to garner a majority support for the Greece’s ruling party’s preferred Presidential candidate, Stavros Dimas. A failure to reach majority today would push Greece to elections in early February which could see the anti-austerity left wing Syriza take majority stake in forming a new government.

Comments from Bundesbank chief and ECB member Jens Weidmann highlighted the opposition of the Germans to the ECB’s QE sovereign bond purchases expected to kick off in Q1 2015, but the comments seem to be starkly confusing to previous rhetoric from the Bundesbank.

Fundamentals Recap – December 26, 2014

  • Japan household spending y/y -2.5% vs. -3.5%
  • Tokyo Core CPI y/y 2.3% as expected
  • Japan national core CPI y/y 2.7% as expected
  • Japan Prelim industrial production m/m -0.6% vs. 1%
  • Japan retail sales y/y 0.4% vs. 1.2%

Fundamentals – December 29, 2014

  • Switzerland UBS consumption indicator

 

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