EUR 
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Sunday that Greece intends to
meet all obligations to its creditors, ahead of the €450m loan it is due to
repay to the International Monetary Fund this week. The managing director of
the IMF, Christine Lagarde stated that confirmation of payment would be duly
welcomed and that talks over Greece’s bailout would resume promptly this week.
This is a sign of light at the end of the tunnel as far as Greek debt is
concerned.

EUR 
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Sunday that Greece intends to
meet all obligations to its creditors, ahead of the €450m loan it is due to
repay to the International Monetary Fund this week. The managing director of
the IMF, Christine Lagarde stated that confirmation of payment would be duly
welcomed and that talks over Greece’s bailout would resume promptly this week.
This is a sign of light at the end of the tunnel as far as Greek debt is
concerned.

The euro zone country is fast running out of cash, but the bailout extended by
the IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank has been frozen until
the leftist-led government reaches agreement on a package of reforms. Good
Friday and Easter Monday was celebrated by the majority of countries within the
Eurozone and as a result there was a lack of economic data over the
last few days. 

USD
The highlight of the Easter weekend for the USD was the release of the non-farm
payrolls on Friday, coming in at a disappointing 126k against a consensus of
245k, the lowest we’ve seen since October 2014. The initial reaction caused a
vast sell off of the Greenback, however a lot of retracement was seen as we
headed closer to the opening of the European sessions.

Bad weather across the East Coast and port strikes in the West has been partly
blamed for this. The unemployment rate showed a figure of 5.5%, which was in
line with consensus, but is still at the lowest levels since the 2008
recession. The mixed bag of data really has given the Fed food for thought, and
whether an interest rate hike in the summer is still on the cards. Monday also
saw the release of Services PMI, showing a reading of 59.2 against a previous
of 58.6. 

Key
Announcements
EUR – 09:00: Eurozone Markit Services PMI
expected to remain at 54.3
USD – 19:00: US Consumer credit change expected to increase from 12.5B to
11.56B

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