Greek prime minister Karamanlis calls a snap election, probably for October 4th

Quote:

‘I don’t think it’s very helpful to try to define the right size for the financial sector any more than trying to define the right size of the cosmetics industry.’ Sir John Gieve (1950-)

The News:

Greek prime minister Karamanlis calls a snap election, probably for October 4th.

The Numbers:

British Summer Time, with expectations and previous figures in brackets.

08:30 SE Swedish Riksbank interest rate decision (expected unchanged at 0.25%).

09:30 GB August Services PMI (52.7 to 54.9 versus 53.2 July).

10:00 EZ16 July Retail Sales (-0.7% to +0.7% M/M, -2.5% to –1.7% Y/Y, versus -0.2% and –2.4% June).

12:45 EZ16 ECB interest rate decision (unanimously expected unchanged at 1.00%); 13:30 News Conference.

13:30 US Weekly Jobless Claims (550K to 580K, Continuing Claims 6099K to 6200K, vs 570K and 6133K prior week).

15:00 US August Non-Manufacturing ISM (45.0 to 50.4 versus 46.4 July).

16:00 US Treasury announces next TNote auctions.

00:50 JP Q2 Capital Spending (-27.5% to –16.3%, Ex-Software –27.9% to –16.9%, versus –25.3% and –25.4% Q1).

The Psychology:

Move into Treasuries continues, with or without quantative easing.

The Risk:

Credit spreads widen this month.

Today’s most interesting chart: Spot Gold

Suddenly bursting higher and set test trendline resistance.

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Published on Thu, Sep 3 2009, 06:48 GMT