Greek fears up as magazine says Merkel willing to accept Grexit

•     Greek fears up as magazine says Merkel willing to accept Grexit

–    Story is roundly denied, but PM Samaras tries stoke Grexit fears to win votes

–    Eurozone stocks plunge, bond yields rise; capital flight to weaken EUR

–    Polls show no Greek party likely to win a majority; uncertainty may continue up to and even after the Jan. 25^th election, weighing on EUR

•     USD weakens nonetheless on profit-taking

–    Down vs all G10 currencies except GBP, most EM currencies except RUB, BRL, MXN

–    Probably just profit-taking; I don’t expect it to last

•     Commodities weaker, led by oil

–    Supply increases, Saudi price cut put pressure on oil

–    China adjusts export subsidy regime, but copper and iron ore both fall

–    AUD and NZD gain nonetheless on rise in HSBC composite PMI for China

•     Today:

–    Eurozone: Final service-sector PMIs for some countries,

–    UK:  Service sector PMI expected to fall. Could be GBP-negative after yesterday’s disappointing construction PMI

–    US: final Markit and ISM service-sector PMIs, November factory orders