31.03.14

Good morning,

Asian markets saw Japanese figures disappoint along with expectations of a sales tax increase tomorrow. Factory output has fallen unexpectedly in February, and expectations of an increase in output for March are at 0.9% Heavy snowfall has been attributed to the decrease in February’s decline. The Sales Tax which has been talked about for some time could see tax increase from the current 5% rate to 8%. The USDJPY was trading at 103.24 so far this session.

The NIKKEI was trading at 14827.83 up 131.80 or 0.90%

European markets will see Bank of England Governor Carney give a speech this evening, following positive retail sales figures from Germany. The EUR responded to the positive figures from Germany currently trading at 1.3770 up from the open price of 1.3751 If tomorrow’s unemployment figures from Germany don’t disappoint we could see the EUR push higher against the USD over the coming days.

The FTSE100 was trading at 6640.83 up 25.25 points an increase of 0.38% while the DAX was trading at 9602.24 up 15.05 points or 0.16%

The US Federal Reserve Chair, Janet Yellen is due to speak today with Chicago Purchasing Manager’s Index released just ahead of this. Canadian GDP figures are also out today, and this could have an effect on the CAD should the 0.4% expected figure not be realised. USDCAD was trading at 1.1065 so far this session with CAD strength recently erasing some of the gains the USD had made in the past week of trading.

Hope you all have a nice day.