Last week ECB president Mario Draghi’s remark at the ECS press conference provided a loop hole to contribute to the Greek bailout, by suggesting to distribute profits from Greek bonds to Greece. Meantime Greece is in a vicious cycle while the austerity measures posed by the EU paralyze market activity lowering consumption which in turn produces less tax revenues to cover its growing debt. Will Draghi’s suggestion help the struggling nation? Let’s start:

In the US, Crude Oil Inventories, the number of crude oil barrels in inventory over the last week, is about to remain 4.2M similar to the last week’s report.

Last week new housing approvals jumped 2.1% in December rising 13% in from a year earlier; however 2011 has been a bad year for the housing sector being the worst year for building since records started in 1965. Will we see an improvement during 2012?

USD/CHF has been trading in range, mirroring euro/dollar. The markets continue to wait for a deal with Greece, as the crisis in Europe continues. This past week saw a break in the action, as the Euro and franc rallies against the dollar ground to a halt.

 Last week excellent NFP figures were released with a 243,000 job gain and unemployment rate dropping to 8.3% in January from 8.5 in December. Both figures bit expectations leaving a lower chance for QE3. Will we see further improvement this year?

Early expectations stood on a gain of around 150K jobs and a steady unemployment rate of 8.5%. So, this is a huge upside surprise, totally unexpected.

Here’s an update on technicals, fundamentals and what’s going on in the markets.

In the US, Unemployment Rate, measures total work unemployed force (by percentage) that looking for jobs during the last month.

The US dollar has been under pressure since Bernanke’s recent softness. There is little chance that this trend will change. NFP Preview.

In the US, CB Consumer Confidence increased more than predicted to 64.5 in December from 55.2 in November indicating an elevated confidence among households. A further improvement to 68.2 is expected now.