The euro drifted higher against the other major currencies in early European deals on Thursday, as traders look forward to release of minutes of the European Central Bank’s March 4-5 monetary policy meeting, which would shed some light on members’ views on quantitative easing program.
The minutes may provide a close scrutiny about what policy makers are thinking as they finalized the modality of the purchases that were announced in January.
Following the March meeting, the ECB President Mario Draghi announced the launch of 1 trillion quantitative easing programme, which will run until September 2016 or until inflation is back on a path towards the bank’s target of close to but below 2 percent. Growth forecasts have been upgraded, as Draghi admitted that bank’s stimulus measures have started to bear fruit.
Greece handed over fresh list of economic reforms, which proposes a series of measures to raise new revenue, to Eurozone and the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday. The new plan was discussed on a conference call, but there was little progress.
The euro was weaker against the greenback, yen and the Swiss franc during Wednesday’s New York session close. In the Asian session today, the currency fell against the franc, but gained modestly against the rest of majors.
The euro reversed from an early low of 1.0749 against the greenback and climbed to a 2-day high of 1.0843. The next possible resistance for the euro may be located around the 1.10 zone. The pair closed Wednesday’s trading at 1.0762.
The euro strengthened to a 2-day high of 129.58 against the yen, up from an early low of 128.60. Continuation of uptrend may lead the euro to a resistance around the 130.00 mark. At Wednesday’s close, the pair was valued at 128.85.
The euro rose to 0.7293 against the pound and 1.0430 against the franc, off previous lows of 0.7252 and 1.0394, respectively. On the upside, the euro may find resistance around 0.735 against the pound and 1.05 against the franc. The euro ended Wednesday’s trading at 0.7259 against the pound and 1.0405 against the franc.
The euro spiked up to 1.4283 against the Australian dollar, its strongest since March 4. If the euro extends rise, it may locate resistance around the 1.44 mark. The euro-aussie pair was worth 1.4161 when it ended Wednesday’s trading.
Australia posted a seasonally adjusted merchandise trade deficit of A$1.256 billion in February, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed.
That beat forecasts for a shortfall of A$1.30 billion following the A$980 million deficit in January.
The euro moved up to a session’s high of 1.3658 against the Canadian dollar, after declining to 1.3560 around 8:45 pm ET. Next key resistance for the euro-loonie pair may be found around the 1.37 region. The pair was valued at 1.3583 at Wednesday’s close.
The single currency recovered to 1.4482 against the NZ dollar, coming off from its previous session’s decline of 1.4406. The euro-kiwi pair was worth 1.4434 when it closed yesterday’s trading. The euro may possibly challenge resistance around the 1.46 zone.
Looking ahead, Canada merchandise trade data for February, U.S. weekly jobless claims for the week ended March 28 and U.S. trade balance and factory orders – both for February are slated for release in the New York session.
At 3:45 pm ET, U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard is expected to speak at the Ninth Biennial Federal Reserve System Community Development Research Conference in Washington DC.
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