Italian 10-year bonds fall to euro-era lows after weak auction, ECB said to be buying in secondary market MF Global unlikely to survive weekend U Mich consumer sentiment revised to 60.9 from 57.5 US spending as expected in PCE report, income soft Japan and Brazil showing interest in EFSF CFTC report shows yen longs doubled [...]

Berlusconi has asked Bini-Smaghi to step down from the ECB executive but he continues to refuse. France wants to install another member because it only has one representative on the 27-member council. Bin-Smaghi has every right to remain in his post until the end of his term. He was expecting to be named to lead [...]

A buy on Bloomberg TV said the October gain is the largest since 1896. Booming economy I guess.

Change in JPY +26K now at +55K Change in EUR +1K now at -77K Change in GBP +1K now at -50K Change in AUD +2K now at +22K Change in NZD +1K now at +9K Change in CAD +3K now at -18K There have been some problems with the long form of the CFTC Commitment of Traders [...]

EUR/USD has been pressing lower in the past few minutes but it's fairly safe to assume it will close above the 200-day moving average at 1.4102 for the first time since early Sept. It will also be the first weekly close above the 100dma and 55dma since the week ending Aug. 25. Unless there is [...]

ISGS says it hit in the southwest, that’s near Cuzco/Machu Pichu

UBS is out with a note saying they expect a 50bps cut on Thurs. Earlier Citi was out saying no change but a 50bps cut in December Most banks say no change but a handful are at -25bps  

If the market is quiet today it's because they’re gearing up for another wild week. Mon: Chicago PMI, Canadian GDP, German retail sales Tues: ISM manufacturing, UK GDP, RBA meeting Wed: FOMC, ADP jobs, German jobs, Thurs: ISM non-manufacturing, ECB meeting Fri: Non-farm payrolls And many more.

–House GOP Ponder Pure Vs (Slightly) More Practical Versions –House Speaker: Reviewing ‘At Least A Half Dozen’ BBA Alternatives –Debt Ceiling Deal Requires Votes in Congress By Dec. 31 By John Shaw WASHINGTON (MNI) – As House Republican leaders prepare for a vote this fall on a balanced budget constitutional amendment, they are mulling over [...]

I don’t think anyone would be heartbroken if the market limped to the finish line today. Everything is trading basically right in the middle of the North American ranges. EUR/USD 1.4135-1.4189 (54 pips) USD/JPY 75.70-75.79 (9 pips) GBP/USD 1.6083-1.6152 (69 pips) USD/CHF 0.8612-0.8651 (39 pips) AUD/USD 1.0658-1.0732 (74 pips) USD/CAD 0.9920-0.9970 (50 pips) It’s time [...]

HICP (flash) Jobless PPI – October – – September – – September - %yoy rate (%) %mom %yoy Median Forecast 2.9 10.0 0.3 5.8 High forecast 3.0 10.0 0.5 6.0 Low forecast 2.8 10.0 0.2 5.7 Previous period 3.0 10.0 -0.1 5.9 - Number of responses 11 7 6 6 - 4Cast 2.8 10.0 0.3 [...]

Retail Sales Jobless – October – September – rate change %mom %yoy (%) (000s) Median Forecast 1.0 1.0 -11.0 6.9 High forecast 1.5 1.5 -10.0 6.9 Low forecast 0.3 0.6 -20.0 6.9 Previous period -2.9 2.2 -26.0 6.9 - Number of responses 8 4 10 8 - 4Cast n/a n/a -17.0 6.9 Barclays Cap. 1.1 [...]

By Steven K. Beckner Continued In Oct. 4 Congressional testimony, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said, “the recovery is close to faltering.” And he said “we need to make sure that the recovery continues and doesn’t drop back.” He said “we are much further away from full employment than we are from price stability.” What’s more, [...]

By Steven K. Beckner (MNI) – Thursday’s agreement among European leaders to resolve the Greek debt crisis must be almost as much of a relief to the Federal Reserve as it is for financial markets. The tentative deal to reduce Greece’s debts, recapitalize banks and effectively enlarge a euro zone bailout fund makes it even [...]

On Aug 19, JPM cut its Q4 forecast to 1.0% from 2.5% when the S&P 500 was at 1122. Today, with the S&P 500 at 1281 they are backtracking and raising the Q4 forecast back to 2.5% because of strong September data, stocks and momentum from Q3.

Berlusconi: Italy ‘most solid’ country after Germany.

Follows a similar move by Fitch earlier.

The UK and most of Europe turns back their clocks one hour on Sunday, meaning UK time will be equal to GMT and the overlap between US-EU trading will be an additional hour. Next weekend North America turns its clocks back an hour and we’re back to normal. Except for Japan and most of Asia, [...]

The FT earlier reported that China could buy €100B of newly issued EFSF bonds. Japan now said to be on board. Update: Brazil says it would lend FX reserves as well. They haven’t decided on how much.

PARIS (MNI) – Fitch Ratings Friday issued the following statement in which it made clear that if the recently decided 50% haircut on the value of privately-held Greek sovereign debt is accepted by banks, it would constitute a credit event: “The framework commitments agreed at the Euro Area Heads of State summit yesterday represent a [...]