On Tuesday, the single currency euro held its ground early in Asia, having been squeezed higher overnight as the market pared extremely bearish bets against it ahead of key events in Europe this week.

After bouncing off a 6-month trough at $1.2666, the euro stood at $1.2767 and traders said buying ahead of a $1.2650 option barrier had prompted some short covering. The euro was also nearing strong support seen just below $1.2600.

After a holiday on Monday, trading activity in Asia is likely to pick up as Tokyo reopens and investors will also have the December trade figures of China to chew on. The Chinese report is expected to show export growth slowing to 13.5 percent, the weakest in two years.

The short covering of Monday helped the euro rise against other currencies; the single currency popped above 98.00 yen from an 11-year trough of 97.28 yen and stood at A$1.2467, off a record low around A$1.2408 set last Friday.

On Saturday, the head of one of Angela Merkel’s coalition partners said the European Union would be fine if a country dropped the currency.

In an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio, Horst Seehofer, leader of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), said he did not agree with Merkel’s statement “If the euro fails, Europe fails.”

“There are many healthy economies in Europe that do not have the euro, and Europe works nonetheless,” he said in a transcript of the interview. “Great Britain is an example.” “I am not proposing it, but if Greece did leave, it would not bring damage and destruction to European integration,” he said.

In a move that could push back expectations of when near-zero U.S. interest rates will rise, the U.S. Federal Reserve will begin publishing its policymakers’ forecasts for borrowing costs.

The step is seen as a significant milestone in the push by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke for greater policymaking transparency besides offering the economy a bit more of a lift by better aligning financial market bets with the main view at the central bank.

“This step is arguably the greatest increase in transparency undertaken by the Bernanke Fed, and could represent his most lasting change to the way the FOMC conducts conventional interest rate policy,” said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.

Last year, British drivers paid out more than £1.3bn to councils in parking charges.

The record earnings from local authority car parks were made public just a few days after a Downing Street report partly blamed high parking charges for the High Street decline.

‘These new figures show that drivers are right to feel they are being milked of their cash by revenue hungry local authorities and the league table probably comes as no surprise to drivers in those areas who probably have strategies to avoid being milked dry,’ a spokesman said.

‘Local authorities should not overlook the fact that parking availability at an affordable and not punitive price can stimulate local economies at time when they need all the help they can get to keep going.’

According to figures, some councils made at least £1million from individual car parks in the most popular locations close to shopping districts.

On Tuesday, Republican and Democratic lawmakers were locked in an end-of-year fight hat threatens a government shutdown, an effective tax hike for 160 million Americans and the loss of benefits for millions of unemployed.

Both parties accused each other of “playing politics” with livelihoods of Americans even as they tried to gain the upper hand. The White House criticized Republicans for putting “the burden of paying for the bill on working families,” an apparent reference to a proposal by Republicans to freeze federal workers’ pay. “This debate should not be about scoring political points. This debate should be about cutting taxes for the middle class,” the White House said in a statement.

Standard Chartered wants to almost double its Singapore revenue to $3 billion over the next 3 years as it remains bullish on the Asian growth story, its Singapore chief said in remarks published on Saturday.

The Straits Times quoted Ray Ferguson, its Singapore and Southeast Asia chief executive as saying the bank sees itself growing across its consumer and wholesale banking segments in Singapore after revenue for the business hit $1 billion in the first 6 months of the year.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

Singapore, where many of its global heads are based, is a major hub for Standard Chartered. Singapore revenue hit $1.7 billion last year for the bank.

Singapore is also the headquarters for its global private bank and houses Asia’s biggest trading floor that accommodates 790 people. Hong Kong and India are other big contributors to Standard Chartered’s income.

Standard Chartered Plc said its income should grow by at least 10 percent this year to put it on track for a 9th straight year of record earning.