- Follow-thorough selling after Steinbrueck raised concerns over Eurozone budget discipline
- Growing realization that ECB is preparing to adopt quantitative ease accelerated position adjustment
- Loss of technical support at 1.3415/20 erodes bullish EUR case
- Preliminary German CPI falls 0.1% in March, up 0.5% y/y
- US personal income falls 0.2%, spending rises 0.2%; savings rate 4.2%.
- University of Michigan consumer sentiment rises to 57.3 from 56.3
- Barclays says US home prices to fall another 20% through next year
- S&P 500 falls
- Oil losses $2.11 to 52.23; Gold dips to $923
- Looking ahead: Geithner appears on Meet the Press on Sunday
A good day for the dollar across the board. Steinbrueck helped push EUR/USD through support at 1.3415/20 and real money buying of USD/JPY in the US put a floor under the market after Lifers sold earlier in the session. 96.90 support was nearly tested in early US trade as USD/JPY fell to 97.12 before rebounding to 98.30. USD/JPY closes a few pips below 98.00.
The reflation trade suffered a setback today; so did AUD and CAD. AUD fell as low as 0.6868 before stabilizing and closing at 0.6925. USD/CAD edged up to the 1.2444 level on short-covering befor ending at 1.2375.
