The dollar is trading slightly lower against its major rivals Monday afternoon. There has been no U.S. economic data to drive the direction of trading today and the rest of the trading week will also be light on data. Investors will be watching for the announcement at the conclusion of the European Central Bank policy meeting on Thursday.
The dollar rose to an early high of $1.0939 against the Euro Monday, but has since pulled back to around $1.1015.
Eurozone investor confidence dropped to the lowest since April 2015, survey results by Sentix showed Monday. The investor sentiment index fell to 5.5 in March from 6.0 in February. The index dropped for the third consecutive month in March and reached its lowest level since April 2015.
Germany’s factory orders dropped for the second straight month in January, reflecting the weakness in domestic demand. Factory orders slid 0.1 percent month-on-month following a revised 0.2 percent drop in December, data from Destatis showed Monday. This was the second consecutive fall in orders.
Nonetheless, the pace of decline was slower than an expected 0.4 percent drop.
The buck climbed to a high of $1.4131 against the pound sterling Monday morning, but has since retreated to around $1.4265.
The U.K. manufacturing sector remained in negative territory at the turn of the year, but new orders and output have improved after sinking to a six-year low in late 2015, a quarterly EEF manufacturing outlook survey suggested.
The Bank of Japan is likely to maintain status quo in the near term, as policymakers measure the effects of the recently introduced negative interest rates, the bank’s chief Haruhiko Kuroda said Monday.
The bank will, for now, carefully study how the effects of the negative interest rates will feed into the real economy, the BoJ Governor said in response to queries regarding further easing, at an event in Tokyo.
The BoJ Board is scheduled to hold its policy meeting on March 14-15.
The greenback has slipped to around Y113.250 against the Japanese Yen this afternoon, from around Y113.700 this morning.
Japan’s leading index declined for the third consecutive month in January to the lowest level in four years, preliminary survey results from the Cabinet Office showed Monday.
The leading index, which measures the future economic activity, fell more-than-expected to 101.4 in January from 101.8 in December. This was the lowest reading since December 2012, when the score was 98.9. The expected reading was 101.6.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com