Waiting With Bated Breath - Will a solution be found to Ireland's banking problems before contagion spreads and the dominos tumble? Well we have to wait because a meeting to tackle this problem will be held on Thursday with the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. I forgot to mention that UK officials will also be at the table because a couple of their banks are on the hook to Irish banks to the tune of $150 billion or so. Back to the markets, the Euro remained near 7-week lows against the USD due to the uncertainty of the Irish situation. This morning, the USD gave back some of its overnight gains after U.S. consumer prices rose less than expected in October and the increase in the year-on-year core rate was the smallest on record. The CPI data further supports the Federal Reserve's decision to ease monetary policy and yesterday's comments by Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren that the Fed would need to consider more stimulus action if the economy weakened. In Asia, the Yen remained close to six week low against the USD as the yield advantage on U.S. paper continued to be the driver in this currency pair. Meanwhile, the AUD was little changed on news that China was implementing temporary measures on prices of some important daily necessities and production materials in order to keep them low for the population. Chinese officials singled out grain, oil, sugar and cotton as markets that it wanted to stabilize. It also vowed to intensify a crackdown on price speculation and to punish those found hoarding commodities and pushing up prices by illegal means. In Canada, the CAD was little changed against the USD after sliding more than a cent yesterday, as soft commodity prices weigh on the CAD as the risk off trade continues to run its course.
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