Friday, May 3, 2013

EUR/USD Reverses Drop After ECB Cuts Interest Rates


Today’s trading session was completely unlike yesterday’s one as all data from the United States was better than expected. The most important event happened in Europe though as the European Central Bank announced its monetary policy decision. Analysts have predicted that the central bank would leave interest rates unchanged, but there were more and more speculations about an interest rate cut as time was passing by and economic reports from the eurozone were coming out rather bad. Such talks proved true and the ECB slashed borrowing costs at today’s meeting. (Event A on the chart.)

US trade balance deficit shrank to $38.8 billion in March down from $43.6 billion in February, being smaller than analysts have estimated ($42.1 billion). (Event B on the chart.)
Initial jobless claims fell from 342k to 324k last week. It was a surprise and a pleasant one as traders were afraid that unemployment claims would rise to 346k. (Event B on the chart.)
Nonfarm productivity rose 0.7% in the first quarter of 2013 after falling 1.9% in the previous quarter. The expected increase was at 1.8%. (Event B on the chart.)