Euro slips ahead of ECB meet

Yesterday was a fairly quiet day on the markets with little ecostats to go on, although those that we had, gave varied results.

The first major release was German PPI data as trading kicked off, coming in lower than forecasters expected at a flat 0 percent for the month and negative 3.1 percent for the year, both missing their marks by 0.2 percent. This gave the euro the slip as investors sold on the negative sentiment ahead of UK unemployment figures.

The headline unemployment figure read as expected so meant sterling continued to make gains against the single currency despite the claimant count of those receiving job seekers allowance was wildly down on forecast, as was average earnings. Sterling managed to make some muted gains against the greenback also.

The Euros losses continued into the speech from ECB boss Super Mario Draghi, as markets priced in an expectation for potential QE as he hinted at turning on the printing press and dropping in some “helicopter money” to fuel local recovery to the EU. While this is speculated over, if he makes any reference to this in today’s press conference, anyone looking to purchase euros may be in for a buying opportunity. If that’s you, make sure you’re registered and ready to take advantage if your Currency Index broker gives you a call!

On the other hand, we could see a nod from Mario to last months inflation reading which showed an upward revision along with the improved local European stock markets showing an uptick as Chinese stock market crash fears diminish, giving investors a resurgence in risk appetite, also buoying up the euro, so buyers beware, it could easily go the wrong way for you too, so make sure to keep the communications open so we can keep you informed.

Elsewhere, the Loonie made some odd gains considering their wholesale sales figure was 2 percent lower than expected. 1.5 cents the pound lost at lunchtime despite this, which was later equated to the gaining oil price which pulled the US dollar along with it and halted stock markets making many gains. Sterling had a poor day yesterday against the greenback losing nearly a cent from the US open.

So as mentioned today is mainly focuses on the European Central Bank interest rate meeting at 12.45pm but kicks off with UK retail sales and public sector net borrowing at 9.30am. US jobs data comes alongside the ECB press conference at 1.30pm followed by BoE governor Mark Carney speaking at 3pm rounding off the day.

Some key speakers amongst some interesting ecostats so make sure to leave the mobiles on if you have an upcoming transfer to make.