Forex

The published results of New Zealand's GDP provided support for the New Zealand currency

Asian and European trading sessions:

Euro:The euro fell sharply against its rivals, the EUR / USD pair fell into the $ 1.2880 after the data, which were released today by Markit Economics, showed decline in purchasing at the manufacturing and services sectors. At the same time, the seasonally adjusted composite index, which measures activity in the mentioned above services recorded the slowest pace in the last three months declining in March to 46.5 down from 47.9 in February. However, despite this decline, the currency was able to recover most of the losses on release of the positive results of the Spanish auction. Today, Spain sold bonds worth 4.513 billion Euros against the target range of 3-4 billion Euros. The averages of the yields of 10, 5 and 2- year securities were also lower than their previous values. The EUR / USD rose to $ 1.2942 during the second part of the European session.

U.S. Dollar: The U.S. dollar index showed the range today restrainedly responding to yesterday's announcement of the two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market. The markets did not hear anything new at the last meeting, as it was expected. The soft monetary policy was kept and the GDP forecast has been downgraded, however, the forecast for the labor market was better. Also, the concerns about the situation with Cypress in the market have been slightly decreased.

British Pound: The GBP / USD pair consolidated above $ 1.5100 during the Asian session before the big move on the European session. The pound rose sharply against the dollar, after the report submitted by the Office for National Statistics showed that retail sales increased significantly in the last month, while the amount of government borrowing was much lower than it was expected. According to the report, by the end of February, retail sales including automotive fuel rose by 2.1%, which was much stronger than the value of 0.6% that economists were expected. In addition, the retail sales also increased by 1.9%, compared with the average forecast of 0.6%. Notable was the increase in retail sales excluding automotive fuel which grew in annual term by 3.3%, compared with forecasts of 1.2% growth. The sales including fuel increased by 2.6% versus expected growth by 0.5%. On these positive data the GBP / USD pair strengthened to $ 1.5207 during the European session.

Japanese Yen: During the Asian session the yen strengthened against the dollar ahead of the press conference of the Bank of Japan Hirohiko Kuroda, scheduled for 09:00 GMT. Market participants were waiting to hear from the new head of the Japanese central bank about his plans about easing the monetary policy before the April meeting. The pair USD / JPY fell in the area of Y95.20 during the Asian session.

New Zealand dollar: The rate of the New Zealand dollar against the “greenback” remained at the yesterday's sessions highs. The published data of New Zealand's GDP provided support for the New Zealand currency. The data showed that by the end of the 4th quarter the GDP rose by 1.5% quarterly and 3.0% yearly where the average forecasted values were at the growth of 0.9% and 2.3% respectively. Stronger data strengthened the confidence of market participants that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will not reduce the interest rate, which currently stands at 2.50%.


American trading session:

Japanese Yen: The Value of the yen rose sharply on the comments of the Governor of the Bank of Japan Kuroda, who noted that the stability of the exchange rate of the National currency is the sphere of responsibility of the Ministry of Finance. In his speech he added that the buying foreign bonds by the Bank of Japan can be seen as an intervention. He also expressed his strong belief in the need of qualitative and quantitative easing policy. As for the currency, he added that the yen is still going through a correction phase after excessive growth following the financial crisis, and the correction of an excessive strengthening of the yen after years of fighting with deflation. In addition, he said that it is highly desirable to achieve the inflation target of 2% in 2 years. The USD / JPY pair fell to Y94.54 during the session.

Gold: The April futures price of gold today rose to 1616.3 dollars per ounce on the NYMEX. The Gold prices were stable amid existed fears for the situation with Cyprus and the U.S.Federal Reserve's promise to continue keeping the monetary policy.

Oil: The May futures of U.S. light crude oil WTI was cheaper falling to 91.80 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell on the background data that German industrial production unexpectedly fell in March, signaling that the euro zone debt crisis slowed growth in the largest economy in the region.