Currencies consolidate; FOMC Minutes Next

Juncker Samaras meeting; German auction. Focus turns to Canadian retail sales, existing home sales and later in the session to FOMC minutes. Less than 12 hours after Ashrafs Premium Insights titled Exploiting Summer Doldrums suggested new 4-year highs in equities and prolonged consolidation in the VIX, risked appetite pushed the envelope to new highs.

Main currencies traded in narrow ranges throughout the London session, consolidating yesterday's relatively large moves. EURUSD continues to trade around 1.2475 and GBPUSD pushed to above 1.58. European equity indices are losing around 0.5%.

Eurogroup head Jean Claude Juncker arrived to Athens for one day visit today. The meeting with Greek PM Antonis Samaras will start at 12:00 pm ET and requests for more "breathing space" in order to get the economy going are expected.

Germany allotted EUR 4.08 bln of 2 year bond vs. EUR 5 bln target with average yield 0% from previous -0.06%. Bid to cover fell to 1.5 from 2.0.

There were no European reports released during the London session today.

The US session will begin at 8:30 am ET with Canadian retail sales that are expected to slow in June to 0.2% from previous 0.3%. Core sales are seen at 0.3% from 0.5%.

Existing home sales are due at 10:00 am and they are anticipated to rise to 4.52M in July from 4.37M in June.

The key event of the session will be the minutes from the FOMC meeting on July 31st/August 1st at 2:00 pm. Traders will look for cost-benefit analysis of further QE but bearing in mind that the meeting ended with no changes there is likely to be little in the minutes to digest, especially considering the upcoming symposium in Jackson Hole.

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