31.03.16

Good morning,

Japanese foreign investment figures in stocks and bonds were both down on previous readings according to numbers published overnight. Annualized Housing starts and Construction Orders from the Land of the Rising Sun were slightly improved from the last time out. USDJPY trading at 112.32 at time of writing. Australia announced Private Sector Credit figures for February and the HIA New Home Sales figures for the same month. AUDUSD trading at 0.7654 at time of writing. The ANZ Business Confidence for February fell off from the previous reading.

In Europe this session we began with Retail Sales figures out of Germany, followed with French Consumer Spending and Producer Prices figures for February. Hungary will also publish Producer Prices this morning. Danish GDP and Spanish Retail Sales are out concurrent to the Hungarian figures, and the Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney, is also scheduled to speak at this time. The important German Unemployment Rate is due to be released for March this session, which is expected to remain unchanged at 6.2% Norwegian Retail Sales and British GDP figures also on the agenda today. EURGBP trading at 0.7900 at time of writing, with EURUSD trading at 1.1332 Italian and Euro Zone Consumer Price Index figures towards the latter stages of the session in Europe.

In the US today Challenger Jobs Cuts and Jobless Claims figures will be the talking points along with the Chicago Purchasing Managers' Index for March. In Canada GDP figures for January are due out. USDCAD trading at 1.2971 at time of writing. The Dollar has been on the offer since FED Chair Janet Yellen alluded to a slow gradual increase in Interest Rates, and references made to a Chinese slowdown earlier in the week. NZDUSD trading at 0.6900 at time of writing was one of those currencies buoyed following Ms. Yellen's remarks.

I hope you all have a nice day.