EUR/USD fell on Tuesday after the arrival of a disillusioning German ZEW Economic Sentiment report. The administration reported a drop to 43.2 from 46.6. Moguls were searching for 46.3. The decrease in the ZEW puts further weight on the European Central Bank to make a move to empower the economy, however the ECB is liable to hold up until the arrival of most recent CPI information on Wednesday. This report is relied upon to show a 0.5% perusing which will be unaltered from the past month.
GBP/USD rallied after U.K. inflation data fell in-line with expectations. The headline year-on-year CPI data fell to the lowest level since October 2009 and the year-on-year measure of retail inflation declined to its weakest level in nearly five years. One bright spot was the surge in the House Price Index. This report exceeded expectations with a 9.1% rise. Traders were pricing in an increase of 7.2%.
AUD/USD rose slightly following the release of the latest Reserve Bank minutes, but failed to hold on to its gains. The minutes didn’t offer any surprises for traders and was viewed as somewhat neutral. Some traders thought the recent run up in the Aussie would have been addressed in the minutes, but the central bank seemed to be unfazed by the price level.
USD/JPY finished flat-to-slightly better following the release of better-than-expected U.S. consumer inflation data. According to the latest data, the U.S. CPI rose 0.2 percent in March, versus expectations of a 0.1 percent gain. Helping to limit gains was the weak Empire State Manufacturing Index. Traders were looking for a robust gain of 8.2. The actual report showed a decline of 1.3.
Gold futures plunged sharply lower after the better-than-expected U.S. CPI report helped trigger a rally in the dollar. Since gold is dollar-denominated, a stronger dollar tends to weaken demand for gold, pressuring the commodity.