This morning, Asian markets have led an early slump across global financial spread betting markets.

One of the main reasons for the morning sell off is continued concerns surrounding the European sovereign crisis. Italy is the latest country to have its debt rating down graded as traders fret over the potential for the situation in Greece to spark a general contagion.

The popular blog Zero Hedge is also running a story that points to reports of Greece having less than two months of cash left. With European politicians engaged in game of apparent brinkmanship, it’s little wonder that the Euro is softer this morning.

The EUR/USD is down 0.85%, the EUR/JPY down 1.14%, the EUR/GBP down 0.49% while the EUR/CHF has hit fresh record lows.

Commodities are also considerably weaker this morning with oil slipping below $98.00 and gold just about holding the $1500 level.

Also in FX spreads news, the commodity weakness is hitting related currencies such as the AUD/USD and NZD/USD, with the AUD/JPY the morning’s biggest faller at -1.17%.

Trading Today

 
There are no major economic announcements due today, though we do have a number of middle tier European data points focusing on Flash manufacturing and services being released at the time of writing.
 

EUR/GBP Fixed Odds Trading Idea

 
The EUR/GBP is sitting right on key support around 0.8675 as the pound shows relative strength in the face of the Euro’s morning weakness. The British economy is not exactly a bed of roses but the huge unknown presented by a Greek default is keeping the pressure on the euro.

The EUR/GBP could go either way from here, but there is potential for any downside breakout of 0.8675 to run and run.

A way to play this might be a LOWER trade predicting that EUR/GBP will close below 0.8625 in 4 days time for a potential return of 174%. Note that if you lose this trade you will lose 100% of your stake.

The Markets Friday Afternoon

 
The EUR/CHF went within pips of making record new lows as the euro tumbled on fresh new bailout worries.

The news, views and rumours came thick and fast, but the upshot was the perceived confusion over whether Greece would default on its loan obligations. Adding to the confusion was some debate over what constitutes an actual default with various ‘soft’ alternatives being bandied around.

Moody’s downgrading Greek debt hardly helped matters and traders were dumping the euro as they feared the uncertainty expected from the weekend’s on goings.

The EUR/USD is down 1.07% with the EUR/CHF down a huge 1.40%.

The euro wasn’t the only faller though with the Canadian dollar under pressure following a set of weak economic numbers. The USD/CAD went up 0.72%.

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The Financial Fixed Odds update by David Evans, Market Analyst, BetOnMarkets.

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