US & GLOBAL
• Tanda‐tanda perlambatan pemulihan ekonomi AS menekan Wall Street dan harga minyak Senin kemarin, sementara optimisme bahwa para pejabat akan memberikan kejelasan lebih lanjut untuk jalan keluar krisis utang zona euro memberikan support terhadap mata uang euro. Harga minyak mentah di pasar berjangka AS turun lebih dari 2%, bahkan harga gasoline‐nya anjlok 5% ke level terendah 9 minggu akibat meningkatnya kekhawatiran terhadap demand‐nya jika ekonomi melambat.
• Sebuah indikasi aktivitas ekonomi menurun dan dampak negatifnya pada prospek permintaan menyebabkan tekanan pada komoditas energy.
Sementara indeks S&P500 AS tertekan oleh penurunan saham teknologi dan konsumen karena kekuatan pemulihan mulai dipertanyakan.
Pergeraakan harga belakangan ini – termasuk merosotnya S&P500 ke penutupan terendah hampir 1 bulan serta di bawah key‐level support‐nya – menandakan tekanan pasar masih akan berlanjut. Indeks bursa saham dunia yang diukur oleh MSCI turun 0,67%. Sementara indeks saham teknologi AS, Nasdaq, tenggelam dan menjadi pemimpin penurunan saham‐saham AS karena investor menjual saham‐saham yang mengalami kenaikan terbesar beberapa waktu lalu di saat mulai ada tanda kegelisahan terhadap kinerja ekonomi AS. Sub indeks retail S&P <.RLX> jatuh 2%.
• Indeks manufaktur NY‐Fed mengalami penurunan di bulan Mei ke level terendah dalam 5 bulan, demikian ditunjukkan pada rilis data tersebut semalam. Sementara penahanan direktur IMF, Dominique Strauss‐Kahn, atas tuduhan percobaan perkosaan mengirimkan ‘gelombang kejut’ di kalangan politikus Perancis dan mengundang kegaduhan di lingkungan IMF.
• EUR/USD rebound dari tekanan sebelumnya setelah pertemuan Uni Eropa menunjukkan dukungan untuk negara‐negara yang sedang terbebani krisis utang. Kanselir Jerman Angela Merkel mengatakan restrukturisasi utang negara zona euro sebelum 2013 akan "sangat" merusak kredibilitas zona euro – komentar ini meredam kekhawatiran terhadap potensi restrukturisasi utang Yunani yang mencuat sebelumnya. Menteri keuangan Eropa mungkin menunjukkan solidaritas dan dukungan bagi Yunani, terutama setelah komentar Merkel. Para menteri keuangan zona Euro juga menyetujui program bailout €78 milyar untuk Portugal tetapi dengan syarat bahwa pemerintah Portugal harus berusaha keras meminta para
investor pemegang obligasinya untuk tetap mempertahankan eksposur mereka.
Mata uang tunggal euro naik 0,5% mendekati $1,4170‐an setelah sebelumnya jatuh hingga $1,4049, level terendah sejak 30 Maret.
EUR/USD sebelumnya mengalami kenaikan hingga level tertinggi 17 bulan di 1,4939 pada 4/Mei lalu. Harga minyak mentah di bursa berjangka AS berlanjut turun dengan akumulasi sekitar 15% di bulan ini, karena munculnya kekhawatiran tekanan demand dari potensi ekonomi yang meredup. Harga minyak mentah berjangka AS <CLc1> turun ke $97.00/barel sesaat setelah penutupan pasar NY Senin. Harga Brent Juni <LCOc1> jatuh ke intraday terendah $112,00 kemarin, sebelum memantul kembali ke $112,87, atau turun 1% kemarin. Emas tetap stabil, dengan harga spot <XAU=> yang bergerak di sekitar $1,490.00/ons setelah penutupan NY, turun tipis dari $1,491.00 akhir minggu lalu.
GOLD & COMMODITIES
• Emas bertahan Senin lalu karena euro menghentikan level terendahnya dalam tujuh minggu, tetapi mata uang masih menyisakan kerentanan pada ketidakpastian mengenai utang pada negara‐negara zona euro, yang mana juga memicu aksi safe‐haven buying pada precious metal.
• Spot gold <XAU=> diperdagangkan pada level $1500,20 per troi ons pada pukul 1355 GMT, dari level $1493,25 pada penutupan New York Jumat lalu. Logam mulia mencapai level puncaknya $1575,79 pada 2 Mei. U.S. gold <GCcv1> berada pada level $1497,90 per ons.
• Dollar <EUR=> pada awalnya naik ke level tertingginya dalam tujuh minggu terhadap euro karena berita bahwa kepala IMF Dominique Strauss‐Kahn telah dituduh percobaan perkosaan yang menambah ketidakpastian. Euro kemudian mengalami recover, didorong oleh aksi beli oleh Asian central bank.
• "If you have a strong dollar you will see gold fall, but in euro terms, gold will probably do quite well," ungkap Dan Brebner, seorang analis pada Deutsche Bank.
• Emas <XAUEUR=R> berada disekitar level 1057 euro, sedikit berubah dari level Jumat lalu, dan sempat mengarah pada arah level tertingginya yang pernah ada diatas level 1075 euro yang tercapai Desember lalu.
• Silver <XAG=> merosot 3.5 persen ke level $34.03 tetapi naik lagi dari penurunannya dan terakhir diperdagangkan pada level $34.92 per ons, dari level $35.28 Jumat lalu. Industri logam mulia telah anjlok sekitar 30 persen sejak mencatatkan level tertinggi $49.51 pada 28 April.
• Platinum <XPT=> berada pada level $1760,50 per ons dari $1756,05 Jumat lalu dan palladium <XPD=> berada pada level $712.22 dari level $705.70 per ons.
BRUSSELS | Mon May 16, 2011 7:40pm EDT
(Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers said for the first time on Monday that they would consider asking Greece's private creditors to extend the maturities on their bonds to buy Athens more time to pay down its huge debt.
At a meeting in Brussels that was overshadowed by the weekend arrest of International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on rape charges, the ministers also approved a bailout for Portugal and backed Italian Mario Draghi to become the next president of the European Central Bank.
Strauss-Kahn, who has run the Washington-based IMF since 2007, had been expected to attend the monthly meeting of finance ministers from the 17-nation currency bloc to discuss their widening debt crisis.
But instead he was forced to appear in a Manhattan court, where prosecutors described in graphic detail his alleged attack on a chambermaid in a midtown Manhattan hotel on Saturday.
Through his lawyers, Strauss-Kahn has denied the charges but the judge refused to grant him bail after the prosecution warned he might try to flee the country. He is to be transferred to New York's notorious Rikers Island jail pending his next court appearance on Friday.
The events across the Atlantic cast a cloud over the meeting, where ministers wrestled with a new plan for Greece, which is struggling to meet the targets linked to its 110 billion euro ($155 billion) EU/IMF rescue, sealed one year ago.
Many economists believe Greece will become the first western European country to restructure its debt since post-war Germany in 1948, but policymakers have ruled out imposing painful losses, or "haircuts," on the country's private creditors before 2013.
"REPROFILING"
Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, who chairs euro zone finance minister meetings, left the door open however to a "reprofiling" of Greece's debt under which investors would be encouraged to agree to an extension of the maturities of the debt they hold.
"I have to repeat that a large restructuring is no option. Nobody was mentioning tonight the need of having a large restructuring," Juncker said.
"I wouldn't exclude in a definite way a kind of reprofiling," he added. "It's not reprofiling or nothing, it's measures and measures and measures and then maybe reprofiling."
It is unclear how policymakers could convince Greek debt holders to agree to a voluntary "soft restructuring" of this kind. Even if they were successful, this step would only buy Athens more time, not reduce its sovereign debt burden of about 330 billion euros.
Juncker described the situation in Greece as "extremely difficult" but held out hope that its problems could be brought under control if Athens stepped up reforms to meet its 2011 fiscal goals and moved swiftly to sell off state assets.
In another sign of the rising pressure on European governments to broaden the burden of their bailouts from taxpayers to the banks that have lent to so-called peripheral euro zone countries, the ministers backed a 78 billion euro bailout of Portugal but insisted Lisbon seek agreement from private bondholders to maintain their exposure to its debt.
Finland had insisted on some form of private sector involvement to ensure its parliament, which includes euroskeptic parties, will approve the bailout.
It was the first time a euro zone country has explicitly sought voluntary pledges from private creditors not to sell down their debt holdings.
Lisbon cannot force debt holders to maintain their exposure so it is unclear whether the pledge will have more than a symbolic impact. Portugal is the third euro zone country to secure a rescue package after Greece and Ireland last year.
DRAGHI SLAM DUNK
Backing for Italian central bank chief Mario Draghi to replace Jean-Claude Trichet at the helm of the ECB when the Frenchman's term expires at the end of October had been widely expected after German Chancellor Angela Merkel threw her weight behind him last week.
Draghi takes over the ECB at a crucial time, with the sovereign debt crisis raging and after the Frankfurt-based bank raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time in nearly three years in April.
After the surprise withdrawal of Germany's Axel Weber from the ECB race in February, Draghi quickly emerged as the favorite and Europe avoided a messy fight over the nomination.
Should Strauss-Kahn resign or be dismissed from his post at the IMF, the battle over who should succeed him could be much more intense.
Europe has had a long-standing claim to the Fund's top position and would probably be keen to bring in someone who, like Strauss-Kahn, will be committed to helping the bloc fight its sovereign debt crisis. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde is seen as the top European candidate.
But a recent power shift at the IMF toward emerging nations means that countries such as China, India and Brazil could press for a new chief from a developing nation.
