U.S. currency five-dollar bills
Sheets of former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on the five-dollar bill currency are seen through a magnifying glass at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington March 26, 2015. Reuters/Gary Cameron

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar has opened trade this morning in the mid .7700’s versus the USD as all eyes continue to be on the Greek debt situation.

Australia: With a summit of European leaders scheduled for today, Greece continues to occupy the attention of the financial markets with more funding from the ECB to Greek banks occurring on Friday so that the major Greek banks could open for business on Monday. Greeks have been withdrawing large amounts of cash from their accounts all last week as the crisis continued. In Australia, there is a light week of data beginning with some services data today followed by the latest ABS figures on house prices tomorrow. The rapid escalation in house prices especially in Sydney and Melbourne recently will dominate our local financial news this week.

Majors: Today’s summit of European leaders will begin with the focus on what agreement might be reached before a payment of EUR1.6bn is due on June 30 to the IMF. The ECB on Friday provided more emergency funding to Greek banks so they could open today. A variety of options are being discussed including capital controls along the lines of what occurred in Cyprus in March, 2013. A wider EUR summit begins for two days on June 25. On Friday, Germany’s PPI figures were in line with expectations with no rise in PPI for May mom and a fall of 1.3% on a yoy basis. In the UK, public sector borrowing for May was lower than expected and the deficit for May came in at GBP10.1bn which is down GBP2.2bn in annual terms. In the US, San Francisco Fed President Williams said there had been huge progress in labour markets and he believed that it was better to raise rates sooner than later but this should be done if inflation picked up.

Economic Calendar 22 JUN

  • EU EU Summit on Greece
  • EC Consumer Confidence
  • JN BoJ Monthly Economic Report

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