The tone of today’s fundamental news on the economic calendar is all about speeches with very little in the way of hard economic data to influence the market although loose and careless talk can often cause more acute and unexpected volatility than otherwise might have been expected.  This morning’s speech was by Deutsche Bundesbank Axel Weber on the topic of the government’s bad bank plan where he is testifying before the Budget Committee in Berlin.   Problems in the European Banking System have already been highlighted with a report in the German magazine Der Spiegel followed by a UK Telegraph report released during the Asian trading session, suggesting that a poll due this week by the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce would show that financing problems are actually deepening in Europe’s largest economy.

Moving to the US the only significant item of economic news is the TIC long term purchases data which represents the difference in value between foreign long term securities purchased by US citizens and US long term securities purchased by foreigners during the same period, and the figures represent the balance between domestic and foreign investment.   As an example if overseas buyers spent 100bn and those in the US purchased 30bn then the net figure would be 70bn.  The forecast for today is for a figure of 58.1bn against a previous of 55.8bn.    TIC data is followed by the Empire State Manufacturing Index which is forecast at -4.7, a marginally worse position than last time at -4.6.  The remainder of today’s trading session is peppered with speeches from FOMC members including Daniel Tarullo who is due to speak at the North Carolina Bankers’ Association Annual Convention.  His speech is entitled “Large Banks and Small Banks in An Era of Systemic Risk Regulation”.  He is closely followed by FOMC Charles Evans who is speaking at a breakfast meeting in Chicago on the economic outlook for the US.  30 mins later we have Treasury Secretary Geithner who is speaking on the same subject at the Time Warner Centre in New York (so let’s hope they are singing off the same song sheet).  Finally this evening we have Fed Reserve Gov Elizabeth Duke who is delivering a speech entitled “The Federal Reserve’s Responses to the Financial Crisis” in Washington DC.

You can keep up to date with all the latest fundamental news on the economic calendar, latest currency news and live currency charts by simply following the links.  I have also included details on an excellent ECN broker.