EUR

It'll be ugly, and extremely bumpy, but the euro will survive, says Nobel-prize winner Joseph Stiglitz:


Business Week:
Political leaders will do everything to save the euro and they will muddle through, Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor, said in an interview in Stockholm today. Europe is likely to go through a weak period as governments implement more austerity measures in the face of a weak economy.
...
Europe will go through a period of high volatility, with political action being taken only each time Europe comes to the brink, but when you play brinkmanship theres always the risk that one of the times that you are on the brink, you wait a little bit too long, Stiglitz said.


sssssshhhh dont tell anyone but he was at the last bilderberg meeting last year sipping martini's .......

Bloomberg's take

ECB Speculation

Benchmark indexes slid to their lows of the day in midday trading as the euro tumbled as much as 0.8 percent to $1.2153, near a four-year low of $1.2111 reached earlier two days ago, amid speculation the European Central Bank may need to take steps to boost liquidity in the financial system.

There has been speculation in the past day or so that the ECB is going to have to roll out some kind of debt guarantee program, said Greg Woodard, portfolio strategist at Manning & Napier in Fairport, New York, which manages $30 billion. That signals to the markets that maybe the ECB knows something that the market doesnt, suggesting that conditions are worse than we know about.

Now everyone seems to expect big NFP numbers... could be as 50,000 part time oil spill cleaners are on payrolls. That could help EUR indeed but I don't think for more than a day.

macrosam thanks for that...

What Crisis? Asia-Europe Shipping Volume Spikes 25%


Lloyd's List reports that Asia-Europe container trade has continued to rebound in April. 1.1 million teu (twenty-foot equivalent units) of box volume was shipped from Asia to Europe during the month, up substantially from 878,129 teu one year ago.

For the first quarter, volume was up 21%. Asia-Europe freight rates also rose in April from March with a price index hitting 122 from 116. (base year 2008 = 100)
European demand weakness didn't materialize in April. Still, transport research firm Transport Trackers (TT) finds 'it difficult to expect Europe to magically keep up a strong demand in the face of a massive need for austerity following a long period of Debt Gone Wild.' So perhaps weakness is on the way.

Interestingly, it has been Asian demand for European goods which weakened in April. Eastbound container traffic fell 7% in April year over year, despite having gone up by 23% year over year in the first quarter.

Given the weakening euro, this data seems counter intuitive, one would have expected European demand to be the first to drop. Perhaps May will bring good news for Asia-bound traffic, given that it was the month when the euro truly collapsed,

Transport Trackers notes separately that Asia-Europe rates fell slightly (1.4%) in May vs. April, but note that this could be a ship-supply driven response. Previously idle ships (put into lay over during the recent downturn) have been pouring back onto the market.

@Stationdealer, where there are free drinks and girls...u also find plenty of boys

@Catnip clubs in Mayfair are always full of totty mate...be good to have you down there