Forex Previews

Week Ahead – US Fed and BoJ rate decisions, GDP data to dominate

Posted on April 24, 2015 at 12:48 pm GMT

The economic calendar for the upcoming week looks busy despite a number of bank holidays for several countries. The key data will be coming out of the United States where the US Federal Reserve will hold their April Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on Wednesday, as well as preliminary GDP readings to be published on the same day. GDP data for other countries are also due next week, including the United Kingdom and Canada. PMI data for the US, [..]

Eurozone April Flash PMI disappoints but euro periphery outperforms France and Germany

Posted on April 23, 2015 at 10:35 am GMT

A batch of flash PMI surveys for April are out today for Germany, France and the Eurozone as a whole. The data is a key indicator for the markets about the pace of economic recovery in Eurozone member states at a time where analysts will be watching closely the effects of the ECB’s quantitative easing program materializing into sustainable growth while Greek default fears linger in the background. First to be published were the French Markit Flash manufacturing and Flash [..]

Australian CPI data boosts Aussie but paves way for further rates cut

Posted on April 22, 2015 at 12:03 pm GMT

Australian Quarterly CPI data published yesterday showed consumer prices rising at their slowest rate since the second quarter of 2012, with the year-on-year rate falling to 1.3% in the first quarter of the year, sharply down from the previous quarter’s 1.7%. Falling transport/fuel costs was the main factor driving down the CPI. The quarter-on-quarter rate of change was up by 0.2%, unchanged from the previous quarter’s increase. Both figures were within forecasts but the Reserve Bank of Australia’s trimmed mean [..]

Worries over Greek default intensify as Eurogroup agreement still not in sight

Posted on April 21, 2015 at 10:28 am GMT

Greece has been the main focus at the start of the week and is likely to dominate it for the remainder of the week as the Eurogroup meeting approaches on Friday and markets will be closely monitoring how the negotiations progress.Friday’s meeting of Eurozone finance ministers in Riga is aimed at reaching an agreement on Greece’s proposals for economic reforms needed to secure the final payments of its 2012 bailout program. Worries about a possible default were heightened yesterday after [..]

China’s central bank cuts RRR by 1% in hope of avoiding deep slowdown

Posted on April 20, 2015 at 9:52 am GMT

On Sunday, China’s central bank cut the cash reserve ratio that banks are required to hold as reserves in an attempt to encourage bank lending and stimulate the slowing economy. The People’s Bank of China cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for all banks by 100 basis points to 18.5%, which comes into effect on April 20. This was the steepest reduction in the RRR since the height of the global financial crisis in 2008 and shows that the authorities [..]

Week Ahead – Eurozone recovery in focus but Grexit fears remain ahead of Eurogroup meeting

Posted on April 17, 2015 at 12:11 pm GMT

Next week will see a number of key indicators for Eurozone countries as manufacturing and services PMI data are released for France, Germany and the Eurozone, as well as German IFO Business Climate and ZEW Economic Sentiment indices. Markets will be paying close attention to these figures for further evidence of the strengthening recovery in Eurozone economies, which will be coming against the backdrop of the worsening situation in the debt negotiations for Greece. The German ZEW Economic Sentiment indicator, [..]

Strong Australian unemployment data raises doubts on further rate cuts

Posted on April 16, 2015 at 10:07 am GMT

Australian jobs data came in stronger than expected yesterday with the unemployment rate unexpectedly dropping to 6.1% in March against expectations that it would be 6.3%. February’s figure, which was the highest since September 2002, also took the markets by surprise after being revised down to 6.2%, suggesting a more robust labour market than many had anticipated. Total employment increased by 37.7 thousand to 11.7 million, giving an annual increase of 1.6%. The labour participation rate increased 0.1% to 64.8%, with [..]

China Q1 GDP in line with forecasts but weak monthly data increases worries

Posted on April 15, 2015 at 10:20 am GMT

The Chinese economy expanded by 7.0% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2015. This was in line with forecasts but the slowest pace since the fourth quarter of 2009 and down from the 7.3% growth achieved in the final quarter of 2014. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the growth rate was 1.3%, against forecasts of 1.4%. Industrial production figures published on the same day showed industrial output up by 5.6% year-on-year, significantly weaker than forecasts of a 6.9% growth, while Fixed [..]

Bank of Japan minutes and PM advisor’s comments send yen higher

Posted on April 14, 2015 at 1:06 pm GMT

The Japanese Yen came into focus at the start of the week as the Bank of Japan published the minutes of its March 16-17 Monetary Policy Meeting on Monday April 13. At its March meeting, the Bank had maintained its policy of increasing the monetary base at an annual pace of about 80 trillion yen through money market operations. Disclosed in the minutes were many Policy Board members’ view that the underlying trend in inflation would continue to improve despite [..]

Week ahead – ECB Meeting and US, UK inflation data to dominate the week

Posted on April 9, 2015 at 12:17 pm GMT

A number of important economic data are due next week as the latest inflation and unemployment figures are published for several countries, as well as the European Central Bank interest rate decision on Wednesday, which is likely to be the main focus of the week. The week will start relatively quiet as no major data is expected on Monday and most Eastern European markets will be closed for the Orthodox Easter. The main data coming out of the US will be the Consumer [..]

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