Archive - Jun 14, 2010 - Story

• Asian shares were mostly higher Monday, lifted by Friday's mild gains on Wall Street.
• ECB governor said interest rates in the euro zone will remain on hold for many months.
• Euro concerns put plan to introduce a single currency for GCC nations on hold.
• Euro volatility signalling weakness as traders lose confidence in currency.
• French, German banks continued to hold the greatest exposure to euro-zone countries.
• South Korea's Won advances on tighter forwards curbs, risk of intervention.
• Taiwan, China say they reach a basic agreement on reducing trade tariffs.

A potentially destabilizing report appeared earlier today in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), according to which countries in the EU are preparing to bail out Spain, which has immediately prompted denials out of both the EU Commission, which claimed that the "report on aid for Spain is completely untrue." Of course, in January Joaquin Almunia almost ate that Bloomberg reporter who, for the first time ever, suggested that the EU would need to bail out Greece. Four months later Greece was bankrupt and the EU was on hook for a cool trillion. And in adding to the ongoing contradictions, Spain's Treasury Secretary has said Spain has no problem financing its debt, even as it was reported that Spanish banks have raised a record €85.6 billion in ECB funding, and Spain's Ocana understated that the "liquidity freeze in Spain in foreign markets is a problem." On the other hand, of course Spain has no problem in "financing" its debt - the ECB is gladly monetizing it all. Lastly, the fact that Spanish unions have called for a general strike is likely going to shift the balance of power to the truth instead of the baseless propaganda, and within a week or so, Spain will be another raging Greece.

RANsquawk European Morning Briefing - Stocks, Bonds, FX etc. – 14/06/10