020 7898 0500The euro had another mixed day on Tuesday as it moved both ways in the morning and then in the afternoon, before settling very close to where it was at the beginning of the day. The unemployment rate for the Eurozone did fall again, but only marginally from 10.5% to 10.4% – giving slight strength for the single currency, this was a sign of improvement as it was the lowest reading for the euro area since September 2011. Most of this was down to the unexpected fall in Germany, which fell from 6.3 to 6.2%.
Wednesday morning will see the release of final purchasing manager’s index data from the Eurozone at 9am, and this is expected to fall from 54.3 down to 53.5; a negative fall here could put the single currency on the back foot from the off. Slightly later at 10am, retail sales data is released which is expected to pick up slightly to 0.3% which is an impressive figure for January, after December’s figure fell short of expectation at -0.3%.
