The European Central Bank allotted 529.5 billion euros to European banks in the second LTRO. This was a bit larger than expected. Where do we go from here?
Simon Smith of FxPro discusses the outcome, and what awaits markets on this choppy day.
Spanish banks took up a lot of money in the first operation, and probably enjoyed this one as well. Spain managed to secure nearly a third of its funding needs for 2012, very early in the year.
EUR/USD is not trading lower. It fell under the minor line of 1.3430. Is it indeed selling the fact?
Moves are choppy on the end of the month. We still have Ben Bernanke’s testimony later on.
The operation provided European banks with more shock absorbers. In case of a hard default of Greece and a domino effect, they are better equipped for weathering the situation.
Will leaders let Greece go now? They might do it as Greece had too many “prior actions†(38 to be precise) to fulfill before the end of the month.
ISDA will probably rule that the bond swap, even if it is still underway, is an outright default triggering CDS. The ISDA decision is due tomorrow.
