General News

Fitch Rating Services cut its outlook on Japan’s sovereign debt rating from stable to negative. In doing so the company followed in steps of the S&P. The difference is that Fitch only issued a warning, while the S&P actually cut its rating on Japan’s debt by one notch to AA- from AA. In spite of Fitch’s fine expression that the country’s “credit worthiness is under negative pressure from rising government indebtedness”, an outlook cut is not much in real steps and markets barely responded. In fact, by the end of the day, the Yen was significantly stronger than the Dollar at 80.77. Perhaps the USD was not the best measuring yardstick, since the Dollar lost a lot of ground. It dropped to yet another all time low against the Swiss Franc, at 84.61 in a sharp move during the last hour of trading. However, most of the daily moves happened very early on, during the Asian session. The AUD-USD rallied over 100...

Greece continues to find ways to avert a default/restructuring of its debt. The problem here is that the austerity measures are not enough, there aren't enough assets to privatize (at fire sale prices) and the country just cant get its act together. (NYT) Despite pressure from lenders for Greece to show a unified front in solving its debt crisis, Prime Minister George Papandreou had little apparent success Tuesday in persuading his political rivals to back additional tax increases and spending cuts. The ruling Socialists have a comfortable six-seat majority in the 300-seat Parliament and should be able to pass the measures without the support of the opposition. But Greece’s creditors have been pressing Mr. Papandreou to seek consensus for the deeply unpopular reforms before presenting them to a Greek public weary of a year of austerity, arguing that some degree of political consensus would make implementation easier. - New Democracy, a resolute "NO", Communists "NO", Popular Orthodox Rally "Unclear" (the Fed...