Pre-holiday trading in Asia has been fairly subdued, with the JPY and USD posting marginal losses. EUR/USD is up at 1.3280 having closed out in North America around 1.3260, while EUR/JPY has edged up to 132.75 from around 132.20.
The moves come with Asian stocks posting decent gains. Risk sentiment has been bolstered a little by news the LDP is proposing a larger than expected record $154 bln stimulus package, which is equivalent to about 3% of GDP. There has also been some unexpectedly good news on the economic data front, with Japanese manchinery orders for February rising 1.4%.
For today following economic data due for release in Europe:
08:00 GMT: Italian industrial production (Feb) -1.5% m/m, -17.5% y/y
08:00 GMT: ECB publishes monthly report
08:30 GMT: UK PPI (Mar) input 0.9% m/m, -0.7% y/y
08:30 GMT: UK PPI (Mar) output 0.1% m/m, 2.1% y/y
08:30 GMT: UK visible trade (Feb) -£7.600 bln
08:30 GMT: UK trade non EU (Feb) -£5.500 bln
08:30 GMT; UK total trade (Feb) -£3.450 bln
10:00 GMT: German industrial production (Feb) -3.0% m/m, -21.75 y/y
11:00 GMT: Bank of England rate decision rates on hold at 0.50%
