Monday 26th April….Although off its lows of last Friday the Euro still remains under heavy selling pressure and it is the concern of the Greek debt issue that continues to drive the move. Greece has now asked the EU and IMF to deliver the bail-out money and it remains to be seen just how the authorities will now meet their obligations. Meanwhile US economic data continues to impress and that is also boosting demand for the dollar. An interesting week ahead of us!

Markets start off the week in risk appetite mode, riding on the relive from Greece situation and late rally in US equities last Friday. Japanese yen is broadly lower with AUD/JPY and CAD/JPY making new 2010 high. Strength of Sterling and Kiwi is also impressive. Meanwhile, Dollar is generally soft except versus yen. Nevertheless, one thing to note is that dollar majors, are still kept inside familiar range. Even the relatively strong Sterling, Aussie, and Loonie are held below recent high against the greenback.

Over the weekend, ECB officials dismissed the speculation of spreadover of Greece’s debt problem to other Eurozone countries. Nowotny said there is “no economic cause for a contagion discussion”. Trichet emphasized that “Spain is not Greece.” Noyer said “is there a risk for other countries in the zone? No, the other situations have absolutely nothing to do with that of Greece.”

However, Harvard Professor Kenneth Rogoff, a former IMF chief economist, warned that it’s likely that there will be “an IMF program in at least one more country in the euro area over the next two to three years.” And, “the budget cuts needed in Europe in many countries are profound.”