22/03/2012 Are Gold and Aussie out of favour?
EUR/USD
Yesterday the US market remained in the mode of slight correction, which actually failed to produce any significant impact on the EUR/USD rate. At some point the single currency rose to the two-week high of 1.3280, but didn’t manage to consolidate at this level. Apparently, the markets needed a larger batch of news to decide on the further action. The only interesting statistics came in on the existing home sales. According to the data published by the National Association of Realtors, home sales fell by 0.9% in February to the annual pace of 4.59 million. However, last month sales jumped by 5.7%, so there’s no cause for concern about the stability of recovery in this sector. As was mentioned yesterday, the Americans tend to purchase more homes when their prices go up. This report has shown the reverse side. The decline occurred on the rise in the average sale price from $154.6K to $156.6K. When compared with the minimum levels at the height of recession, the market volume have grown by 40%. Besides, as you remember, the new home sales have increased by about 50%. Thus, finally we get the picture of quite a healthy growth. Today’s data on the European flash PMI for March have come in surprisingly weak. The composite index has fallen to 47.7 against the expected 49.6 and 49.0 a month earlier. The services sector doesn’t feel better. Instead of going up to 49.3 the composite indicator has fallen to 48.7 from 48.8 a month earlier. This index is a creditable indicator, so its weak figures have served as a strong impetus for selling, nipping in the bud all attempts of the bulls to fight for the 1.33 point.
GBP/USD
The British government made every effort to smooth out the release of the new budget. And we should say, they have succeeded. As has been generally expected, the 50% income tax for the wealthy will be replaced by the 45% one starting next year...
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