The euro is “strong like bull” on Thursday as Greek Prime Minister Tsipras had another victory overnight. Late Wednesday, Greek Parliament passed a second package of reforms that was required to start talks on the financial rescue agreement. Passing with the backing of 230 of 300 Senate votes, this latest parliamentary victory for the capitulating Tsipras covered rules for dealing with failing banks and reforms to the justice system. A lot of work remains to be done but these two parliamentary victories pave the way for Mr. Tsipras’ next two battles, to be fought with creditors and his constituents. The euro is now pushing 200 pips higher above the Mondaylows during a week without any major economic data to guide price action. Sterling lost a bit of ground overnight following a rare miss in retail sales as it was reported consumer spending in June dropped 0.2% versus expectations of an increase of 0.3%. One day after BoE Chairman Mark Carney signaled a rate rise could be on the cards for early 2016, the pound should keep its bullish bias despite today’s minor blip.
Headlining the Asian session was the latest policy meeting by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. Policy makers in Kiwi-land cut the headline rate by 25 bps to 3.00% and added that further easing is likely. Having fallen nearly 15% since April, the RBNZ commented that further falls to their currency are justified and the recent decline in dairy prices will curb economic growth. It’s Australian cousin is higher this morning, following a round of lower sessions as commodities such as oil, gold and copper experience heavy selling pressure. Although the drop in Chinese equities has remained off the front page this week, it is still in the forefront of many people’s minds. Should Chinese growth continue to falter into 2016, commodity prices could fall further as the market weighs Chinese demand.
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