11.03.14

Good morning,

Asian markets saw the Bank of Japan leave interest rates unchanged at 0.1%, and also outlined their plan to continue increasing the money supply by 60-70 trillion JPY per annum. USDJPY was trading at 103.28 with a high of 103.42 and a low of 103.20, while the NIKKEI gained 103.97 points this session so far. Russian intervention in the Ukraine has led to speculation on whether gas pipelines will be closed off to European markets. NGAS was trading at 4.662 at time of writing. New Zealand will announce their interest rate decision late on Wednesday night with analysts expecting an increase from 2.5% to 2.75%

The NIKKEI was trading at 15224.11 up 103.97 points or 0.69%

Europe saw German figures released this morning with both exports and imports reading higher, with the trade balance figure in slightly lower than had been expected at 17.2 billion euros, where 17.7B had been the forecast. Britain has the Inflation Report hearing this morning, while Industrial and Manufacturing production figures are released ahead of this.

The FTSE100 closed at 6689.45 down 23.22 points or minus 0.35%while the DAX closed at 9265.50 down 85.25 points or minus 0.91%

American markets are not expecting major data releases today, the Wholesale Inventories figures for January and the Redbook Index however are due out this afternoon. EURUSD was trading at 1.3858 with Euro gains following ECB President Draghi’s speech on Thursday last.

The DOW closed at 16418.68 down 34.04 points or minus 0.21%

Hope you all have a nice day.