Today’s Economic events
Coming Up
Asian equity markets closed in the red today with the Nikkei225 down -0.64% and the Shanghai Composite down -1.62% as the US Dollar continued to maintain its bullish momentum. St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard, in his speech yesterday said that there was a change for interest rates to be hiked in April. He joins a majority of other Fed members who have in the recent weeks echoed similar hawkish views on US interest rates, which has kept the dollar well support after the Greenback fell strongly on a dovish FOMC meeting.
There were no major economic releases from Asia this morning. USD/JPY continued to edge higher and posted an intraday high to 113 before giving up the gains. The Dollar is currently up 0.03% as USD/JPY is close to trading back near the day’s open, currently at 112.42 at the time of writing. The commodity risk currencies are also looking to trim their losses. AUD/USD is down -0.26% for the day after prices initially fell to session lows above 0.75. AUD/USD is currently trading at 0.751. NZD/USD is flat for the day after prices fell to lows below 0.668 before stabilizing. Yesterday, New Zealand’s trade balance data showed an increase of 339 million beating forecasts of 75 million. However, most of the gains came from re-exports of Oil drilling platforms. The Kiwi did not react much to the news.
In Europe, German import prices for the month fell -0.60%, missing forecasts of -0.30% declines. This comes after import prices fell -1.50% a month ago. Germany’s consumer climate was also soft at 9.4 against estimates of 9.5. EUR/USD continued its gradual downtrend as the single currency is down -0.12% at the time of writing. Prices briefly fell to 1.115 before attempting to push higher.
