EUR/USD Drops After ECB Makes No Changes to Monetary Policy

EUR/USD dropped today after the European Central Bank made no changes to its ultra-loose monetary policy, in line with market expectations. ECB President Mario Draghi was optimistic about eurozone economic growth, but voiced concerns about inflation. Answering to questions during the press-conference, he said that it is too early to discuss an exit strategy for the quantitative easing program. Overall, Draghi sounded a bit more dovish than markets would have liked, thus sending the euro down. (Event A on the chart.) Today’s US economic data was poor, weighing on the dollar, but that did not help EUR/USD.
Initial jobless claims rose to 257k last week from the previous week’s revised value of 243k. That was a surprise to analysts as they had expected a small drop to 241k. (Event A on the chart.)
Durable goods orders rose 0.7% in March. That is compared to the forecast growth of 1.5% and the previous month’s rate of 1.8%. (Event A on the chart.)
Pending home sales fell 0.8% in March from February, more than analysts had predicted (0.6%). The report explained the decline by sparse inventories, while buyers were actually very active. The sales were up as much as 5.5% in February. (Event B on the chart.)

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