Range trading ahead of Easter holidays

More range bound trading today as the markets still can’t quite get a trend going in the holidays.

The tensions in Ukraine and Russia are becoming the main talking points of yesterday as traders get increasingly nervous holding positions over the Easter holidays.

Chinese GDP was roughly as expected by some but still low enough to spur renewed stimulus talks. This in turn weakened the yen and gave the Aussie dollar a lift after its losses yesterday.

Today’s action kicks off with the UK unemployment rate expected at 7.2% – the same as last. At the same time the claimant count change will be released and is expected at -30.2k from a previous reading of -34.6k.

In Europe the year-on-year CPI is released today and is expected at 0.5% – the same as last time. The core year-on-year CPI is expected at 0.8% – a drop from the previous reading of 1%. A lot of attention is drawn to inflation/deflation issues. With the eurozone this could be a key to the next trend of the euro.

In the US building permits will be released today and are expected at one million – a slight drop from its last reading.

We then hear more comments from Yellen later from a conference in New York, which will probably be more of the same with no extra clues.

The Beige Book will also be released tonight. A further economic signal that the Fed use to determine their actions in Fed policy meetings.

For CAD traders the rate announcement is out today and is expected to remain at 1.00%. This is then followed by the statement which will be more likely to give any clues to further actions the BoC may take.

EUR/USD

Supports 1.3780 1.3750 1.3700 | Resistance 1.3880 1.3910 1.3940

USD/JPY

Supports 101.20 100.75 100.40 | Resistance 102.15 102.50 102.80

GBP/USD

Supports 1.6700 1.6660 1.6620 | Resistance 1.6750 1.6780 1.6820