Asian shares rose to fresh seven-year highs on Friday

Good Morning,

- Euro climbs on Greek hopes, after Angela Merkel said everything must be done to prevent Greece from running out of money. The common currency last stood just below to $1.09 level, having recovered strongly from Thursday's low of $1.0666.

- Asian shares rose to fresh seven-year highs on Friday, on track for a weekly gain after Nasdaq rose to a record, above its previous record set in March 2000, the height of the dot.com boom.

- Greek PM Alexis Tsipras also said he was optimistic of reaching a deal with the country's creditors after making significant progress in reform-for-cash negotiations.

- Greek FM Varoufakis says Greek position in negotiations is strategic, not tactical. Sees common ground for deal. Greek govt spokesman says Athens not looking at scenarios of referendum or elections, says it has fresh popular mandate.

- The dollar also nursed losses after more disappointing economical data, among them an 11.4 percent slide in new home sales in March. While that was the biggest monthly decline since July 2013, it followed three straight months of hefty gains, data showed yesterday.

- Goldman Sachs on EUR/USD: "At the end of the ECB press conference on Apr. 15, when President Draghi made favorable comments on the inflation and growth picture. The market heard exit, but in our view this is a clear case of “lost in translation." GS adds. "After all, President Draghi earlier in the press conference argued forcefully that focus on early exit is premature and that having this debate now is like “quitting a marathon after 1k.” Our European economists continue to expect “full implementation” of ECB QE, meaning an unchanged pace of asset purchases through at least Sep. 2016. This is key to our view that a cyclical recovery in the Euro zone is not a force for EUR/USD higher," GS clarifies. GS targets EUR/USD at 1.00 in 6-months.

- BOJ is said to see forecasts prompting debate on future taper.

- The Bank of Japan helped push yields on government notes below zero this week for the first time since January before monetary officials set policy on April 30 as they pursue an elusive 2 percent inflation target. Two-year yields declined one basis point to minus 0.015 percent after the central bank purchased 520 billion yen ($4.3 billion) in debt from the secondary market as part of Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s pledge in October to boost the monetary base at an annual pace of 80 trillion yen. Finance Minister Taro Aso said Friday that he expects the BOJ to continue to carry out monetary easing in a sound manner.

- Chinese banks face a spike in bad loans amid slowing economic growth, PwC warns in a new report. "There are a variety of indications that credit risk exposure is accelerating," said PwC China Banking and Capital Markets leader Jimmy Leung. Asset quality continues to worsen, while the average overdue loan period is constantly increasing, Leung said, noting there is growing pressure on overdue loans to be downgraded to the non-performing loan category.

- Oil prices were on track for weekly gains but came off the overnight highs after Saudi Arabia continued bombing missions in Yemen that raised concerns about the security of oil supplies.

- Saudi Arabia has a response to the global surplus of oil: Raise output to near-record levels and then pump even more. The world’s biggest oil exporter, having abandoned last year its role of keeping global markets in balance, now has incentive to maximize output and undermine rival producers by using its reserve capacity, according to Citigroup Inc. and UBS AG. Just meeting its own domestic demand this summer will require a lot more fuel, others estimate.

- Watch today: Talks for Greek debt, German Ifo, US durables.

Have a nice Week !