06:02 EST Oil Action: Oil prices rose above USD 71 as militants in Nigeria said today that they today attacked the second well head at Royal Dutch Shell Plc's Afremo offshore oil field last night. Miltants already attacked a Shell pipeline yesterday and the disruptions coupled with weaker USD helped to lift oil prices after the recent correction. As of 9:31GMT the August Nymex future is up 91 cents per barrel at USD 71.13, after trading in a range of USD 70.20 to USD 71.29 per barrel.

05:46 EST The PBOC said China will push world to cut reliance on a small set of reserve currencies, adding that it sees serious defects in one currency dominating the global monetary system. The PBOC reiterated its called for a 'super-sovereign' currency. On the domestic economy the PBOC said its sees medium and long term inflation risks in China.

05:34 EST Swiss June KOF leading indicator rose to -1.65 in June, compared to a Reuters median for -1.76, and while the May reading was revised up from -1.86 to -1.85. this was hence not the first improvement to the index since since July 2007, when the index reached +2.09, but is a significant rise and suggests that sentiments data might be bottoming out in Switzerland as well, as has been seen recently in the eurozone. But the reading is still at very low levels, highlighting the severity of the current recession.

05:12 EST Gold Action: Gold traded up to $945.80 highs during the European morning as the market responded to an easier dollar tone. The downturn in the dollar was a symptom of improved risk appetite after Thursday's equity market rebound. Oil price gains also encouraged some inflation hedging by short term accounts, but the resurgence in equities fueled some investor rotation back in to stocks, which saw the SPDR Trust fall to 1,125.74 tonnes, which was a 5.5 tonnes fall from Wednesday.

04:40 EST German state NRW June prices rose 0.3% m/m, leaving the annual rate unchanged from May at 0.1% y/y. Expectations for the pan German rate are for a rise of 0.2% m/m, so data are slightly higher than anticipated, but while NRW is the most popolous state it is only the second to release data and other states could change the overall picture. The breakdown showed that the monthly rise was driven by higher energy prices that month with prices excluding heating oil and fuel unchanged over the month. However, despite the recent uptick energy price remain much lower than a year ago and the annual rate is still held down by positive base effects with prices excluding heating oil and fuels up 1.3% y/y. This is down from 1.5% in May and 1.9% y/y in April, which suggests that lower growth is also leading to downward price pressures elsewhere.

04:12 EST The Norwegian central bank said it has extended the USD15 bln Fed swap facility to February 1 2010 from October 30 this year, through which banks can access U.S. dollar liquidity if needed.

03:55 EST Banks park cash at ECB after 12 months tender, with overnight deposits with the ECB surging to EUR 143.4 bln, the highest since early March. The ECB this week allocated EUR 442 bln in its first 12 months auction, bringing the total of outstanding market operations to EUR 896.5 bln. The fact that banks are depositing nearly a sixth of the funds at the ECB suggests that banks continue to hord cash rather than passing on the ECB's improved financing conditions to credit customers. German Economy Minister Guttenberg said today that while Germany is not "experiencing a credit squeeze right across the economy, some industry sectors are", adding that "we need to observe this very closely in the coming months". Even ECB's Weber said this week that if banks do not pass on the rate cuts and offer cheap credit, the central bank has to circumvent the banking channel in its attempt to ease credit conditions.

03:09 EST BdF president Noyer said stress test confirmed solidity of French banks. He said French banks has "solid solvency" but added that risk control must match capital market growth, when presenting the annual report of the French banking commission today.

02:55 EST French Q1 GDP was confirmed at -1.2% q/q and -3.2% y/y, in line with previous numbers. No surprise there and the data are too backward looking to change the growth or interest rate outlook.