Snidely Whiplash and Company’s fingerprints found at the scene of another crime…

Euro group will not decide Greek on Greece until October; adopt watered down budget rules; no solution for Finnish collateral yet Geithner a laughingstock as Europeans reject advise of indebted Americans US TIC data shows net long-term inflows of capital less swaps of $9.5 bln University of Michigan consumer sentiment 57.8 from 55.7 Portugal says [...]

The did, and they called him an asshat. Nothing unifies Europeans like a lecture from an American… Geithner encouraged Europe to act decisively Did not advocate or oppose any specific policy at meeting in Poland Stocks getting a lift into the close, 0.5%, not thanks to our brave, young Treasury Secretary

BRUSSELS (MNI) – EU finance ministers meeting in Poland Friday, approved a compromise agreement on new legislation designed to play a central role in strengthening fiscal governance and economic cohesion in the Eurozone. Among the measures agreed are a streamlined procedure for sanctioning countries than run excessive fiscal or current account imbalances that would punish [...]

126 km east, southeast of Hachinohe, Honshu, according to the US geological survey. Not a big quake by Japanese standards. No reaction from USD/JPY, which is steady at 76.85.

It’s the same reason Obama sent a “jobs” bill with a bunch of pet projects to Congress which he knew had no chance of passage, so he can blame them in the campaign. Geithner went to Europe so when the European poop hits the fan, Obama can say “I told them how to avoid it, [...]

Bloomberg reports that Goldman told clients today that it stopped itself out of a bearish bet on the dollar against a basket of currencies including the NZD, RUB, SEK, KRW and MYR They lost 2.3% on the trade, unleveraged.  

WROCLAW, Poland (MNI) – Growing tensions in financial markets are a reminder that European nations must put their financial houses in order, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said Friday evening. At a press conference following the informal meeting of European Union finance ministers here, Trichet again called for governments to implement rapidly and completely [...]

EU public finances are contained Euro exit doesn’t make sense for a country It’s all good, I guess…A pretty relaxed stance, all things considered.

PMI – September (flash) Industrial Orders factory services – July - %mom %yoy Median forecast* 48.2 50.8 -0.5 10.7 High forecast 49.5 51.3 1.5 12.5 Low forecast 47.6 49.5 -2.3 6.1 Previous period 49.0 51.5 -0.7 11.1 – No of responses 18 18 11 4 – 4Cast 48.0 51.0 -2.1 na Barclays Cap. 47.8 49.8 [...]

PMI – September (flash) factory services Median Forecast 48.2 54.4 High forecast 49.3 57.2 Low forecast 47.7 45.0 Previous period 49.1 56.8 - Number of responses 10 10 - 4Cast 49.3 56.0 Barclays Cap. 48.0 54.5 BNP Paribas 48.0 54.0 Commerzbank 49.0 55.5 DZ Bank 47.7 45.0 Danske 48.2 53.0 Soc. Generale 48.5 54.2 Standard [...]

Producer Prices ZEW – September – August – economic current %mom %yoy sentiment conditions Median Forecast 0.1 5.9 -45.0 43.0 High forecast 0.5 6.0 -30.0 55.0 Low forecast -0.7 5.1 -50.0 20.5 Previous period 0.7 5.8 -37.6 53.5 - Number of responses 11 9 17 9 4Cast 0.0 5.8 -45.0 49.0 Barclays Cap. 0.2 5.9 [...]

Each year around this time we run a fundraiser for a cause near and dear to my heart. If you find ForexLive useful, please consider contributing a few bob to the MDSC Buddy Walk. Last year we raised over $5500. This year. my goal is to double that. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, good. More rules to ignore! Trichet calls he compromise on tougher budget rules a very important step.

–President Obama To Send Panel His Deficit Cutting Ideas Monday –House Speaker Boehner Tells Panel To Focus On Entitlement Reforms –Rep. Boehner Urges Panel To Outline Tax Reform Principles; No Tax Hike –Nearly Three Dozen Senators Admonish Panel To ‘Go Big’ on Deficit Cut By John Shaw WASHINGTON (MNI) – Congress’s Joint Select Committee on [...]

Greece discussed very intensely Greece is on plan, Greek Fin Min told ministers Ministers discussed transaction tax Talks with Geithner were friendly, intensive Bloomberg headlines…

It won’t stay that way for long, however. Next week the focus will return to the Fed as the market tries to guess which tool or tools will be wheeled out of the Fed’s tool shed. Thursday’s firmer than expected CPI data (+3.8% y/y) makes it very unlikely, in my view, that the Fed will [...]

FRANKFURT (MNI) – German banks can expect to write down the value of their Greek bond holdings by 21%, the Association of German Banks (BdB) confirmed Friday, refuting claims to the contrary. In response to assertions made by the speaker for the opposition parliamentary group Buendnis 90/Die Gruenen, Gerhard Schick, that German banks might need [...]

US DATA: Q2 Flow of Funds show dom. nonfinancial debt +3.0% SAAR vs +1.9% in Q1 as business (via corp bonds and loans) and federal debt accelerated. HH (mainly in mtgs) and S&L debt continued to drop. Household net worth was $58.5T, about $150b less than at the end of Q1. Data on Tsys show [...]

Outgoing ECB chief economist Stark says the ongoing bailouts of euro zone countries does not solve problems per se. It is just mean to buy time. The question is, buy time until what? EUR/USD is trading fairly quietly at 1.3780. Stark continues: Some Greeks do not understand how grave the situation is; country has lived [...]