The USD has managed to claw back some marginal gains during the Asian session. In the North America session Wednesday the USD fell sharply in the wake of the Federal Reserve announcing it would buy $300 bln long-dated treasuries over the next six months, while also boosting purchases of mortgage-backed securities and agency debt.
The plan will see a sharp expansion of the Federal Reserves’ balance sheet and lead to a significant increase in the supply of dollars in circulation. EUR/USD is presently down at 1.3435 compared to a North American close Wednesday up around 1.3485.
For today, on the economic data front, we have the following releases:
07:15 GMT: Swiss trade (Feb)
09:00 GMT: Italian trade (Jan) expected -2,476.0 m from -411.0 m
09:00 GMT: Italian trade EU expected +400.0 m from -345.0 m
09:30 GMT: UK public finances (PSNCR) (Feb) expected 4.5 bln
09:30 GMT: UK public sector borrowing (Feb) expected 8.3 bln
09:30 GMT: UK M4 money supply (Feb) expected 1.4%
10:00 GMT: Swiss ZEW survey expectations (Mar)
11:00 GMT: UK CBI industrial trends (Mar)
