The Swiss National Bank (SNB) will enforce its minimum rate of 1.2 Swiss francs per euro and is ready to buy unlimited amounts of foreign currency in any global interbank market, said interim president Thomas Jordan on Tuesday.

The SNB introduced the 1.2 francs-per-euro cap in September to stem the Swiss currency appreciation in an effort to relieve the pressure on the country’s exporters and prevent the risk of deflation.

I was browsing through one of the trading forums this morning and someone posted a link to a new spread betting magazine that is available online. (...)

After recently touching a 90-day high against its U.S. counterpart, the Canadian dollar’s advance appears to have stalled. The pause coincided with news that for the first time since last May, Canada’s economy shrank as Statistics Canada reported that the economy contracted by 0.1 percent for the month of November.

Trading binary options might seem pretty easy at first. The thing to remember, however, is to treat them just as you would any other trade. Trading in general is not easy, so trading binary options should not be easy either. While there is less work that you might need to put into a binary option than if you were, say, selling a company’s stock short, there is still a lot of work that needs to go into binary options if you want to be successful.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said today that a recession in the Eurozone would likely reduce China’s actual growth by about 50 percent of the current projection. That would place China’s growth for 2012 at roughly 4 percent should the Eurozone crisis devolve into a recession.

Joseph Stiglitz over at The Guardian writes three possible explanations for why the European Central Bank is pushing for a 50% voluntary cut, that will not be considered a “Credit Event” so no insurance will be paid out.

1. ECB knows/suspects that the affected banks have not bought insurance.

2. ECB fears that the lack of transparency could make an involuntary default lead to a credit market freeze (think Lehman in 2008).

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said Greece was close to coming to terms on a deal with Eurozone authorities and its bond holders that would reduce the weight of the country’s debt and still provide access to credit as the government struggles to contain its deficit. In order to avoid default, Greece is attempting to reduce its overall debt load to 120 percent of GDP compared to the current 162 percent.

The permanent debt relief plan for the European Union is still being discussed, but pessimists ruled the market. The governments within the EU are struggling to create jobs and promote growth, but the debt talks that were supposed to originally cover these topics has mostly progressed into how best to bail out the nation of Greece. Restructuring the Greek debt has become a monumental task and it has deservingly commanded the bulk of the EU’s discussion.

The British pound sterling is currently struggling to hold its value, despite the good news out of the Euro zone that Greek debt talks are nearing an end. The pound had a minor rebound on Monday, January 23, 2012, but experts expect it to give up ground soon. The Bank of England is coming to some conclusions in the near future that probably will include a need to increase monetary support. There is also talk that the BoE will ask to expand the Asset Purchase Facility up above the currently agreed upon 275 billion pounds.

Sterling higher in currency trading

Positive manufacturing data out of the UK is helping the pound today in forex trading.