Euro opened the week lower and breached 1.11 against dollar after Greek leftist Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras claimed victory on Sunday's election. At the time of writing, the Coalition of Radical left got over 36% of votes, comparing with New Democracy's 28%. Tsipras is clearly known for his anti-austerity stance and he's expected to start the negotiation with European leaders quickly over the terms on the EUR 240b bailout program. While he said they'll go for a "fair and mutually beneficial solutions", he also emphasized the priority is for Greeks to "regain their lost dignity" due to the austerity imposed by international creditors. And, the new Greek government will have just over a month to reach a deal with the creditors before the existing one expires. Tsipras somewhat toned down on his stance and emphasized the country won't leave the Eurozone. But the negotiation head will be tough and is leaving markets with a lot of uncertainties.
Minutes of BoJ's December meeting showed that policy makers were in no rush to expand the massive stimulus program. Many members believed that the sharp fall in oil price would weigh on inflation in the near term but would provide support to the economy. It played down the importance of the near-term dip in inflation as long as the economy is on track for recovery. But some members raised concerns over weak consumer and business sentiments. Some members noted that "consumer sentiment surveys have shown relatively weak developments recently". Also from Japan, trade deficit narrowed to JPY -0.71T in December versus expectation of JPY -0.74T. To be released later today, German Ifo business claims is expected to show slightly improvement in January. UK will release BBA mortgage approvals.
Latest CFTC data showed general deterioration in positions in major currencies on January 20 comparing to the prior week. In particular, net shorts in Euro and Sterling rose to highest level in over a year. Euro net shorts rose to 180.7k contracts, up from 167.8k, and was the highest level since June 2012. Swiss franc net shorts dropped sharply to 9.8k, down from 26.4k, and that was after SNB's remove of currency cap. Sterling net shorts rose to 45.7k, from 37.1k, highest since August 2013. Yen net shorts dropped slightly to 77.9k, down from -94.6k.Canadian dolalr net shorts rose slightly to 29.8k, from 21.2k. Aussie net short was relatively unchanged at 46.6k.