It was a busy start to the European session, with economic data from Germany, Italy, and France in focus, which weighed on the EUR.
It was a busy start to the day on the Eurozone economic calendar today.
The German economy was back in focus ahead of the European open this morning, with stats from France and Italy also on the docket.
Industrial production fell by 1.6% in February, month-on-month, following a revised 2% decline in January. Economists had forecast a 1.5% rise.
According to Destatis,
In February, Germany’s trade surplus narrowed from €22.2bn to €19.1bn, versus a forecasted narrowing to €20.0bn.
According to Destatis,
Trade with EU countries:
Trade with non-EU countries:
Trade with the UK
Other notables:
From France, the stats were also skewed to the negative, with industrial production sliding by 4.7% in February. Economists had forecast a 0.5% rise following a 3.2% increase in January.
Italian retail sales figures were upbeat, however. In February, retail sales jumped by 6.6%, reversing a 2.7% slide from January.
Ahead of Germany’s factory orders, the EUR had struck a pre-release high and current day high $1.19202 before easing back.
In response to today’s data released, the EUR rose to a post-stat high $1.18991 before falling to a post-stat and current day low $1.18839.
At the time of writing, the EUR was down by 0.17% to $1.18934.
Wholesale inflation figures are due out of the U.S. The markets are expecting a pickup in wholesale inflationary pressures.
Economists have forecast the annual rate of core wholesale inflation to pickup from 2.5% to 2.7% in March.
With over 20 years of experience in the finance industry, Bob has been managing regional teams across Europe and Asia and focusing on analytics across both corporate and financial institutions. Currently he is covering developments relating to the financial markets, including currencies, commodities, alternative asset classes, and global equities.