Market Review - 27/12/2011 22:00 All times in GMT

Euro trades narrowly ahead of Italian auction

The single currency remained little changed against the greenback on Tuesday as investors were on the sideline ahead of Italy's 6-month bill and zero-coupon debt sale tomorrow and 3-year and 10-year bond auction on Thursday.

Although the single currency traded relatively narrowly in Asia due partly to closure of financial markets in New Zealand and Australia, euro ratcheted higher from session low at 1.3045 to an intra-day high at 1.3083 in European morning. However, euro briefly retreated to 1.3056 in New York morning on cross-selling against sterling (eur/gbp fell from 0.8361 to 0.8333) before inching back to near 1.3075 New York close.

The British pound rose from a session low in Asian morning at 1.5600 and spiked to an intra-day high at 1.5704 in early European morning (UK markets were closed due to Boxing day) due to a sell order of eur/gbp, however, cable quickly retreated to 1.5632 before recovering to around 1.5680 ahead of New York close.

Versus the Japanese yen, the greenback traded narrowly with a soft bias and weakened from an intra-day high at 78.03 in Asian morning to a session low at 77.80 in New York morning.

On the data front, U.S. S&P CaseShiller home price m/m n y/y for Oct were -0.6% n -3.4% against expectations of -0.4% n -3.2% respectively. US Dec. consumer confidence index rose to 64.5 from the downwardly revised 55.2 in November.

Data to be released on Wednesday :

Japan unemployment rate, national CPI, Tokyo CPI, retail sales, industrial production, Switzerland KOF indicator.