All attention to the stats

EUR/USD

Monday’s selling interest was not spurred yesterday. The market is back at the week’s opening level. However, all the attempts to consolidate above 1.3600 proved to be futile. The pair rose as high as 1.3613 and rolled down below 1.36 while the Asian stock markets were going through a correction. The stock exchanges went into profit-taking after reaching the six-year high in Nikkei and the US stocks continued to decrease as expectations in regard to QE had been revised. This is what we have been preparing you for so long. The US central bank, in theory, can cut the volume of more…

The unstoppable pound

EUR/USD

On Friday trading was mainly held within a very narrow range. The only exception was when EURUSD tumbled down by 20pips in the first hours of the US session. This movement was false as it occurred only because most traders hadn’t entered the market, taking another day off after Thanksgiving. The pair returned to Friday’s levels, that is 1.3600, just over a couple of hours after the Asian session had begun. This week promises to be very eventful. Both the ECB’s meeting and the US employment statistics are scheduled for it. These two events have been provoking the strongest volatility recently. more…

From zero interest rates down to negative ones?

EUR/USD

EURUSD is getting closer to last week’s highs, again trying to consolidate above 1.3550. From the technical viewpoint, there are no serious resistances right up to 1.3750/80. Last week the pair couldn’t go higher because of Bloomberg’s article about possible introduction of the negative deposit rate in the ECB and because of the following release of FOMC’s meeting minutes. These minutes also pointed out a possibility of negative rates on the Fed’s excess cash. Today the markets are worried about the following news: the biggest US banks wrote that should negative interest rates on excess cash be introduced they would be more…

Another hint at the rate cut by the ECB

EUR/USD

As expected, the ECB is trying to put pressure on the single currency. On Monday several members of the EU CB made it clear that the current rates are not ultimate. The bank still can afford to decrease them. Besides, it seems that while the ECB has been keeping the deposit facility rate zero, officials have worked out for themselves a technical possibility of negative interest rates. Now this measure doesn’t look extreme and entailing unpredictable consequences. The reasons why euro-officials put pressure on the single currency are quite understandable. Since the rate cut at the beginning of the month the more…

The markets quickly recovered from the meeting minutes

EUR/USD

The single currency couldn’t stay below 1.3400 for long. Bulls came to their senses and under the cover of the favourable EU statistics were purchasing the euro. The poor rate of France’s Manufacturing PMI (47.8 against the expected 49.6) was pushed into the background by Germany’s manufacturing stats, which proved to be better than forecasted (52.5 against the expected 52.3). The services sectors of these countries also performed below and beyond expectations accordingly. The flash index for the entire eurozone hit the level of 51.5 in November, which  is slightly better than the October rate of 51.3 and slightly worse than more…