EUR/USD Dips After ECB Hints at Additional QE in March

EUR/USD dipped today after the European Central Bank kept monetary policy unchanged but hinted during the press-conference at additional quantitative easing in March. (Event A on the chart.) Currently, the euro is attempting to recover versus the dollar, but for now the currency pair trades below the opening level. The drop was limited by today’s US economic data that was not very good and prevented the greenback from rallying too much.
Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index rose from the December’s revised reading of -10.2 to -3.5 in January. The December’s figure was -5.9 before the revisions and most analysts had anticipated that it would stay the same in January. (Event A on the chart.)
Initial jobless claims rose from 283k to 293k last week instead of falling to 279k as was predicted by experts. (Event A on the chart.)
US crude oil inventories report, released on Thursday instead of Wednesday as usual, showed a buildup of stockpiles by 4.0 million barrels last week. That is compared to the consensus analysts’ prediction of a 3.3 million increase and the previous week’s small gain of 0.2 million. Total motor gasoline inventories gained by 4.6 million. (Event B on the chart.)


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