Quote:
‘Art is what you can get away with’. Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
The News:
Not a single Republican votes in favour of President Obama’s $800B bail-out package.
The Numbers:
Greenwich Mean Time, with expectations and previous figures in brackets.
(20:00) NZ Reserve Bank of New Zealand slashes Official Cash Rate by 150 basis points to a record low 3.00%.
(23:50) JP December Large Retailers’ Sales –6.3% Y/Y, Retail Trade –2.7% Y/Y, versus –3.1% and –0.9% November.
07:00 DE December ILO Unemployment 7.2% versus 7.1% November.
07:00 GB January Nationwide House Prices –1.3% M/M, -16.6% Y/Y, versus –2.5% and –15.9% December.
08:55 DE January Unemployment (+20K to +80K, &.6% to 7.8%, versus +18K and 7.6% December).
09:00 EZ15 December M3 Money Supply (+7.2% to +8.2% Y/Y versus +7.8% November).
10:00 EZ16 January Business Climate (-4 to –2.5, Consumer Confidence –32 to –25, Economic Confidence 62 to 70, Industry Confidence –39 to –32, Services –22 to –16, versus –3.17, -30, 67.2, -33 and –17 December).
13:30 US Dec Durable Goods Orders (-4.0% to +1.3%, Ex-transport –4.0% to +0.5%, vs –1.5% and +0.6% Nov).
13:30 US Weekly Jobless Claims (540K to 650K, Continuing Claims 4550K to 4700K, vs 589K and 4607K prior week).
13:30 CA December Industrial Product price (-3.5% to –1.5% M/M versus –2.6% November).
13:30 CA December Raw Materials price Index (-15.0% to –4.0% M/M versus –13.4% November).
15:00 US December New Home Sales (345K to 412K versus 407K November).
23:30 JP December Jobless (Mizuho Securities 4.0%, Job-to-Applicant 0.70, versus 3.9% and 0.76 November).
23:30 JP January Tokyo CPI (Mizuho Securities +0.6% Y/Y, Ex-fresh Food +0.8%, versus +0.7% and +0.8% Dec).
The Psychology:
Latest fad is creating ‘bad banks’.
The Risk:
Treasury auctions in Italy, the UK an d US.
Today’s most interesting chart: NZD/CAD
Pulling in opposite directions to lowest since Sep 2001.
