Forex: EUR/USD at highs after Italy's PPI

The greenback is pulling back a little, allowing risk sentiment to push the EUR/USD higher again. The market has returned above 1.3000 and is facing interim resistance at 1.3030 during the European session. Italy's Producer Price Index has already been released, down by -0.4% (MoM) in January. The annualized figure eased from 1.8% to 0.7%, instead of staying unchanged as expected.

French imports narrowed from €43.044B to €42.597B in January and exports also eased, from €37.626B to €36.735B, leaving the trade deficit widening from €-5.4B to €-5.9B, instead of narrowing to €-4.8B as expected.

Mataf.net analysts point to resistance at 1.3025 and 1.3070. On the downside, supports might be found at 1.2965, 1.2930 and 1.2875.

Mar 7, 2013

Forex Flash: Market too hawkishly positioned regarding the BRL – TD Securities

The Copom left the Selic rate unchanged at record low 7.25% as expected, although the market was pricing in a meaningful probability of rate hikes already this month. "However, the communiqué did come through with a message that reads more hawkish than we had expected", wrote analyst Cristian Maggio, pointing to potential rate hikes earlier than expected. “Yet, a move at the April 17th meeting still looks unlikely as the Copom voted unanimously for keeping rates unchanged (so there is no evidence yet that the Committee is getting divided on the direction of monetary policy)”, added Maggio.

Forex: USD/JPY testing the 94.00 level

After bottoming out in the 93.79 region (session low) during the overnight session, the USD/JPY has pared the majority of its losses to retest the 94.00 barrier in these moments. Despite this movement higher, the pair still trades negatively Thursday, settling a tepid -0.06% off its opening still.