Euro Flatlines Against the Dollar

The EUR/USD rate has ranged between the euro buying $1.139 and $1.135 this morning CET, levelling out from  purchasing just under $1.146 yesterday morning.

Although the euro is still at its highest level against the greenback since October last year.

LMAX Exchange in their daily report, said that although the euro has been lifted up to fresh 2016 highs this week, but it’s clear that the market is uncomfortable at these heights.

Particularly when factoring in medium-term technical resistance, and central bank statements

European Central Bank (ECB)  President Mario Draghi has vowed unwavering support to the euro, and the continuing bid to fight low inflation in the euro area, which was a negative 0.2% in March.

This stance could result in even further extensions to the ECB’s quantitative easing programme.

There has been extreme turbulence in the  GBP/USD rate this morning GMT, plummeting to a nadir of the pound buying just over $1.404, and peaking at $1.413.

German Exports and Imports both Increase

Official figures have revealed that German exports and imports have increased by 4.1% and 4% respectively in February this year, compared to a year ago.

Germany exported 99.5 billion euros worth of goods, and imported goods reaching 79.3 billion euros in February 2016.

Month on month, exports increased by 1.3% and imports by 0.4%.

In total, the foreign trade balance showed a surplus of 20.3 billion euros in February 2016.

This was greater that the total in February 2015, where the surplus amounted to 19.4 billion euros.

The current account of the balance of payments showed a surplus of 20 billion euros in February 2016, this includes the balance of trade in goods including supplementary trade items and services.

This year’s figure showed an improvement from a year ago, as in February 2015, the German current account showed a surplus of 16.3 billion euros.

There was also a 3.3% year on year increase of German exports to other euro area countries, climbing to 36.8 billion euros worth of goods.

While the value of goods received back from euro area members was 36.1 billion euros, an escalation of 3.7%.

French Manufacturing Falls by 0.9%

Manufacturing in France suffered a decline by minus 0.9% in February this year, which was a major turnaround from the figures released for January, where the sector increased its activity by 0.4%.

Overall, in the first quarter of this year, French manufacturing was stable, falling by just 0.1% in contrast to the final quarter of last year.

There was a sharp reduction of 4.5% in output in mining and quarrying, energy, water supply and waste management.

In the manufacturing of electrical and electronic equipment, machine equipment, there was a decrease of 3.3%.

The construction of coke and refined petroleum products tumbled the most, falling by 8.2%.

Although there was a more moderate fall in the manufacture of food and beverages of 1%.

There was some positive news, as production  grew in other manufacturing by 0.9%, and there was a rise of 1.2%  in the manufacture of transport equipment.