The U.S. dollar maintained the bullish momentum although the pace of gains was somewhat smaller. On the economic front, the data from the eurozone was relatively quiet.
NY Trading Session
The NY trading session saw the February private payrolls rising just 183k. This was below estimates of a 190k increase. The previous month’s payrolls were revised to 300k.
The balance of trade figures showed that the U.S. posted a trade definition of $59 billion for December. This was higher than November’s deficit of $50.3 billion. Excluding the services sector, the trade deficit rose 10% to $891.25 billion, the largest on record so far.
The NY trading session will see Fed Member, Brainard speaking
BOC
The Bank of Canada held its monetary policy meeting last week. As widely expected, the central bank left interest rates unchanged.
In fact, the BOC issued a rather dovish outlook on the global economy and the risks to Canada’s growth. Following the release of the interest rate decision, the Ivey PMI report showed that the index eased to 50.6, missing estimates of an increase to 55.1.
Australia
The economic data from Australia continues with the Asian trading session showing that retail sales rose 0.1%.
Economists forecast that retail sales would rise 0.3% on the month after declining 0.4% previously. Trade balance figures were also released, as the data showed trade balance expanding to 4.5 billion, up from 3.77 billion previously.
Europe
The European trading session will see the release of Switzerland’s unemployment data. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 2.4%. The eurozone’s final fourth-quarter GDP report will be coming out.
Economists forecast no change to the GDP, maintaining the confirmed 0.2% quarterly growth rate. We can expect the eurozone’s final employment change for the quarter to show a 0.3% increase as previously forecast.
The ECB’s monetary policy meeting will be the main highlight for today. The central bank is not expected to make any major changes to its monetary policy. However, there is speculation that the central bank could be dovish in its forward guidance as it contemplates relaunching the TLTRO program.
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