FRANCE: Lecornu Will Have To Resort To Special Bill, OATs Widening A Little

• "*KATAYAMA: WILL MAKE TECHNICAL TWEAK TO BOJ-GOVT ACCORD" - BBG
• "*KATAYAMA: WON'T CHANGE OVERALL DIRECTION IN JOINT ACCORD"
• "*KATAYAMA: DIDN'T SPECIFICALLY TALK ABOUT FX WITH UEDA" - BBG

USDJPY rises through yesterday's highs to hit a new cycle high on these Katayama comments - as noted just above no new news stemming from the headline but the market is be noticing that the finance minister "did not specifically talk about FX", possibly suggesting JPY weakness is not the highest priority - even with USDJPY, EURJPY at cycle highs.

• Meanwhile JGB futures are unreactive to the headlines, -8 vs. settlement levels as wider core global FI markets tick away from session highs.
• We noted earlier this week that the JPY has proved immune to the recent weakness for major equity benchmarks as well as the more forceful verbal warnings from Japanese officials on one-sided adjustments for the currency.
• The next level on the topside for USDJPY is at 155.89, the Feb 3 high, however, more meaningful resistance is at 156.75, the Jan 23 high. For EURJPY, targets rely on technical projections, with 180.37, 181.01 and 181.70 the next levels of note based on the Jul 31 - Sep 29 - Oct 2 price swing.

SFIZ5 96.30/96.15/96.05p fly, sold at 3 in 7.5k.

The Conference of Presidents (the heads of the political groups in the European Parliament) holds a meeting at 16:00CET (10:00ET, 15:00GMT) intended to discuss how to cut down on the use of secret ballots in plenary session votes. Making secret ballots more difficult to hold could limit the prospects of the broadly centrist coalition of groups that backed Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in 2024 being usurped in more votes by the 'Venezuela' coalition of centre-right, right and far-right groups. 

• Politico notes, "The far right has increasingly asked for them, enabling centrist MEPs to discreetly break with deals negotiated by their own leadership — a tactic that helped blow up the agreement to cut green reporting rules for companies, which ultimately was passed thanks to a right-wing majority."
• At present, in order to call for a secret ballot, MEPs or groups reaching the 'high threshold' of one-fifth of MEPs (144) must do so before the vote takes place. The two groups on the far-right, the Patriots for Europe (PfE, 85 seats) and Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN, 27), fall short of this threshold alone. However, if the conservative European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR, 79) side with the PfE and ESN, then the 'high threshold' is met.
• In order to change a rule of procedure, the constitutional affairs committee must evaluate a proposal before putting it before the plenary session, where a majority vote is required.