EUR/usd
Yesterday the euro was moving as if it were on a swing. After a certain growth above 1.32 at the start of trading in London there followed sales of the single currency. The euro weakened on the speech of Mr. Samaras, the New Democratic Party leader, who said that the adopted austerity measures wouldn't last for long and that already after the elections they would be ignored. The most disturbing thing in this story is that Samaras is the leading candidate according to the preliminary polls. On springing fears the single currency fell to 1.3080 at the end of the day yesterday. Later, however, the euro was supported by the speech of China Central Bank Chief, who expressed his approval of the reforms, carried out by the European authorities to handle the crisis. The most important thing is that he promised to actively participate in the recapitalization of the European countries. On such news the euro as well as stock markets surged upwards, however it happened at the time when the trading range was narrow and volumes – small. Now the single currency is trading near 1.3170. The US retail sales figures showed a 0.4% increase in January, but at the same time December's growth of 0.1% was revised to 0.0%. Besides, judging by the annual growth, sales went up by 2% with the deduction of the inflation rate, which is not a particularly good signal. Major World CBs keep carrying out quantitative easing. The next step is to be taken by the Fed.
GBP/USD
Yesterday the British pound was falling for the most part of the day and received support only at 1.5650. The data on inflation mainly justified the forecasts, without causing any agitation in the markets. According to statistics, prices fell by 0.5% in January while the annual inflation rate slowed down to 3.6%. It is not already the scary 5.2% of last September. Nevertheless, it is quite a high level, which made the BoE Governor King write an explanation letter to Secretary of the Treasury about the reasons for such a high inflation rate. In the return letter Osborne thanked the Bank for the QE expansion at the February meeting, noting that such measures help to compensate for the tough government policy aimed at the budget deficit reduction.
USD/JPY
The USD/JPY kept growing throughout the day yesterday. A certain slowdown was observed only in the 78.50 area. It's highly probable that the markets will take a break after the impressive rally earlier this week. More so, the bulls need to summon their strength. It is just the third time in the last six months that the pair tries to overcome this barrier. The previous two attempts ended in sales and led the pair to new lows. Will it be different this time? The downtrend line we described earlier was broken during the last rally, and on the daily charts the pair climbed above the 200-day moving average. So in the near future we are likely to see consolidation and further growth.
AUD/USD
The aussie soared up on the news about the further assistance China promised to render to Europe. In addition, the domestic news was also pretty good. The consumer sentiment index from Westpac rose by 4.2% in February. The car sales also went up after a two-month decline. It seems that once again the Bank of Australia was right when it chose to wait a while and let the previous easing policies be implemented. However, paired with the Kiwi, the Australian currency looks much more tired. NZD is making up for the rise in stock markets far better. In addition, retail sales in the fourth quarter showed an impressive growth, much stronger than expected. The core sales increased by 2.9% over the last quarter of 2011 against the forecasted growth of 1.1%.
