Speaking in Vienna, Trichet said the ECB did not discuss non-standard monetary policy measures (presumably at its last meeting). He dismissed a question as to whether they would cut rates 50 bp at the April meeting while saying the present level was not necessarily the ECB’s lowest. Not much news here, beyond the fact that they did not even discuss quantitative ease at the March meeting.
EUR/USD is edging lower after failing to overcome 1.2850 despite upbeat US retail sales data. A rise in continuing jobless claims helped offset the risk-reduction impact of the retail data. We trade now at 1.2820.
