Greece's demand for WW2 reparations stirs the pot

With another horrible day had by the euro yesterday, as well as poor services data seen for the Eurozone from Markit, there was a bit of good news seen from a Sentix Investor Confidence report which indicated its best release since Aug’13. There big news of the day was the Greek’s announcement that they are after €279Bn worth of reparations from Germany for the damaged caused by the Nazis during WW2. With relations tense between the two countries in any case and the Greeks blaming the Germans partly for the predicament they now find themselves in, the Greeks are likely to run out of money by 20 April if they don’t receive more money before then. The Greek PM was also seen to fly to Moscow yesterday, most likely with the begging bowl, a deal is probably now on the cards between the two as Greece relies on the majority of its gas from Russia, while the Russians will look to gain control of certain Greek assets. This morning may see the euro drop further as retail sales for the Eurozone as a whole are expected to dip.

In the UK, GBP has done pretty well since the long weekend, the PMI index showing positive date for Services which beat expectations of 57 to reach 58.9. Another release by the Confederation of British Industry stated that there had most likely been accelerated growth in Q1 2015 by comparison to Q4 2014. The downside to this is that if the pound’s strength continues then it could very well have a negative impact on the UK’s export prospects. There isn’t much from the UK today aside from house price data later.

Yesterday saw the dollar claw back some of last week’s losses against its major counterparts. Optimism levels, job openings and consumer credit were all seen to do well and helped give the overall impression that the US economy is on the increase. Tonight we’ll see all eyes on the Federal Open Market Committee to see what comes of the meeting minutes. Interest rates are also still something to talk about and the world will wait for more clues as to when the States will raise theirs. This, of course, will have an impact on what happens with the dollar’s strength.