Euro-Skeptic Evans-Pritchard: Key German Officials Back ECB Bond Buying

Economic Data
(IN) India July CPI Y/Y: 9.9% v 10.0% prior; Food-based Inflation 11.5% v 10.7% prior

(JP) Japan July Nationwide Dept. Sales Y/Y: -3.3% v -1.2% prior; Tokyo Dept. Store Sales Y/Y: -1.0% v -0.1% prior

(FI) Finland July Unemployment Rate: 6.9% v 7.9% prior

(ZA) South Africa Jun Leading Indicator: 129.3 v 130.8 prior

(CH) Swiss Q2 Real Estate Index Family Homes: 408.4 v 410.4 prior

(CH) Swiss July M3 Money Supply M3 Y/Y: 9.8% v 8.5% prior

(NL) Netherlands July House Price Index M/M: -3.6% v+ 0.9% prior; Y/Y: -8.0% v -4.4% prior

(SE) Sweden Q2 Total Number of Employees Y/Y: 2.0% v 2.3% prior

(UK) July Public Finances (PSNCR): -£22.9B v +£3.0B prior; Public Sector Net Borrowing: -£1.8B v -£3.2Be; PSNB ex Interventions: +£0.6B v -£2.2Be (Note: the number ex-intervention showed deficit vs. surplus expected)

(HK) Hong Kong July CPI Composite Index Y/Y: 1.6% v 3.4%e

Fixed Income
(ES) Spain Debt Agency (Tesoro) to sell between €3.5-4.5B in 12-Month and 18-Month Bills

Sold €3.53B in 12-month Bills; Avg Yield 3.070% v 3.918% prior; Bid-to-cover: 1.91x v 2.23x prior; Max Yield 3.207% v 3.990% prior; Tail: 13.7bps v 7.2bps prior

Sold €982M in 18-month Bills; Avg Yield 3.335% v 4.242% prior; Bid-to-cover: 3.98x v 3.66x prior; Max Yield 3.450% v 4.350% prior; Tail: 11.5bps v 10.8bps prior

(CH) Switzerland sold CHF760.9M in 6-Month Bills; Yield -0.401%

(EU) ECB allotted €131.3B in 7-Day Main Refinancing Tender at fixed 0.75% vs. prior €130.6B

(HU) Hungary Debt Agency (AKK) sold HUF45B vs. HUF45B target in 3-Month Bills; Avg Yield 6.85% v 6.87% prior; Bid-to-cover: 1.58x v 1.43x prior

(ZA) South Africa sold total ZAR2.1B vs. ZAR2.1B indicated in 2023, 2036 and 2048

(UK) DMO sold £1.25B in 0.125% I/L 2029 Gilts; Real Yield -0.025% v -0.108% prior; Bid-to-cover: 1.84x v 1.83x prior

Notes/Observations
UK newspaper Daily Telegraph's euro-skeptic in chief, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Germanys director at the ECB has thrown his weight behind mass purchases of Spanish and Italian debt to prevent the disintegration of the EMU, marking a crucial turning point in the eurozone debt crisis.

Moody's: Eurozone crisis is at best at the half way point; Greece and Ireland may need until 2016 to improve finances

RBA: Stance of monetary policy remained appropriate; Would take some time for prior rate cuts to take effect

SNB purchased Aussy dollars

Spain may turn Bad Bank into Investment Fund

Equities
Indices: FTSE 100 +0.30%, DAX +0.60% at 7072, CAC-40 +0.80% at 3508, IBEX-35 +0.30% at 7493, FTSE MIB +1.4% at 15,183, SMI +0.20% at 6519, S&P 500 Futures +0.20% at 1417.75

Following the positive open, European indices have continued to trade higher, led by indices in Italy and France. European financials are broadly higher and outperformers include French and Italian banks. Resources related firms are also gaining, in line with the rise seen for Chinese equities and commodity prices.

Large miner Glencore [GLEN.UK] is slightly lower after reporting better than expected H1 profits. Heritage Oil [HOIL.UK] is higher by over 12%, as the company agreed to sell an interest in the Miran block located in Kurdistan. Credit card protection firm CPP Group [CPP.UK] has lost over 7%, after reporting H1 results and making cautious comments regarding its short-term outlook. In other UK movers, engineering/construction firm Severfield-Rowan [SFR.UK] has lost over 6% (reported weaker than expected H1 pretax profits), while builder Persimmon [PSN.UK] is lower by more than 1.5% (reported H1 results).

Shares of Siemens [SIE.DE] have slightly outperformed the DAX, amid speculation that the firm is mulling thousands of job cuts.

Julius Baer [BAER.CH] is higher by over 2% as the company reduced the size of its planned rights offering to CHF500M from the originally disclosed CHF750M. Dental implant maker Straumann [STMN.CH] has traded lower by over 7%, after reporting weaker than expected H1 results. Austrian construction materials firm Wienerberger [WIE.AT] is lower by approx. 3.5%,as Q2 results missed analyst expectations.