23 Feb 2015
EUR/USD contained by 1.14 with Greece still main focus
FXStreet (Bali) - EUR/USD has opened slightly higher in Asia, testing levels close to 1.14 round number initially before a retrace back towards 1.1380, with the Greek debt drama still far from over.
While a 4-month loan extension deal between Greece and the Eurogroup was reached last Friday, this comes not without further belt-tightening measures being expected by Greece, to be submitted by Monday. Over the weekend, there has been reports in the press - via FT - not that encouraging, noting that the reform measures being proposed by Athens remain vague, risking another EU FinMin meeting on Tuesday, an undesirable outcome for the interest of risk/Euro positive plays.
Looking beyond Greece, as Jim Langlands, Founder at FXCharts, notes: "This coming week sees a fair mix of data, starting today with the German IFO and US Home Sales. Midweek sees Janet Yellen testifying to Congress, which will be closely scrutinised for hints of any deviation from the current policy and any change in the expectations of a Q2/Q3 rate hike. There will also be a couple of speeches from Mario Draghi. Also of note will be the EU CPI (Tue), the targeted LTRO figures and US CPI (Thur). On Friday we get a whole mix of data from the US, headed up by the Q4 GDP and the Durable Goods Orders."
While a 4-month loan extension deal between Greece and the Eurogroup was reached last Friday, this comes not without further belt-tightening measures being expected by Greece, to be submitted by Monday. Over the weekend, there has been reports in the press - via FT - not that encouraging, noting that the reform measures being proposed by Athens remain vague, risking another EU FinMin meeting on Tuesday, an undesirable outcome for the interest of risk/Euro positive plays.
Looking beyond Greece, as Jim Langlands, Founder at FXCharts, notes: "This coming week sees a fair mix of data, starting today with the German IFO and US Home Sales. Midweek sees Janet Yellen testifying to Congress, which will be closely scrutinised for hints of any deviation from the current policy and any change in the expectations of a Q2/Q3 rate hike. There will also be a couple of speeches from Mario Draghi. Also of note will be the EU CPI (Tue), the targeted LTRO figures and US CPI (Thur). On Friday we get a whole mix of data from the US, headed up by the Q4 GDP and the Durable Goods Orders."