European Summary

1527 GMT [Dow Jones] EUROPEAN SUMMARY: A slightly weaker session for the dollar while stocks, government bonds and commodities all held positive ground. With U.S. markets closed Monday for Martin Luther King Jr Day it was always going to be a quiet session. The FX majors kept to tight ranges in Europe although sterling did outperform in Asia thanks to a positive Rightmove house price survey with prices up 0.4% on the month and 4.1% on the year. M&A activity and flows out of the euro amid ongoing concerns over Greece also held the pound to a fresh 4 month high of GBP0.8783 while the pound peaked at a fresh one month high of $1.6379. EUR/USD traded between 1.4365-95, USD/JPY between 91.00-90.65. The ECB said it would stop conducting one week Swiss franc swaps due to declining demand and improved funding market conditions, EUR/CHF momentarily dipped to the day's low of 1.4744 on the news. Comments during the day from ECB's Nowotny that Greece had taken the right steps but rather late and Dutch Finance Minister Bos that he was confident Greece would do what was needed drew little reaction from the markets. Apart from the UK housing data, in Asia the data calendar was bare Monday. Bunds and gilts kept in positive territory with the former retaining a bid tone on worries over Greece while the latter garnered support from a strong 3.32x cover for the GBP600M auction of 2017 IL gilts. Around 1500 GMT March gilts are up 0.13 at 115.38 while March bunds are up 0.19 at 122.76. The main European bourses are up around 0.6%, gold is up $5 at 1135oz and oil is up 50c at $84bbl. (GST)

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