Cautious Market Ahead of ECB And Central Bank Releases Later Today

Investors were cautious in Asian Trading Session as they await news and announcements from the various central banks that are due throughout the day today. Later on the Bank of England and The Bank of Japan will be meeting to set their monetary policies. Elsewhere the Bank of Canada will be meeting and the expectation is that they will keep the interest rates on 1per cent. Also the ECB meeting is due later today where concerns are rife that President of the Bank Mario Draghi will announce further interest rate cuts in the short-term.

Binary options trader can expect a day full of volatility in the markets, which makes a fertile and profitable trading ground. Keep your eyes open for the various bank minutes. In addition watch out for other key data releases such as German factory orders and US Jobless claims.

Asian stocks lost their momentum last night in Asian trading and undid the gains made over the previous two days. Yesterday we saw the US ADP nonfarm payrolls release. The number increased to 198,000 for Feb which beat market anticipation by 28,000. Also January’s figure saw a revision for the better to 215,000 from the previous rise of 192,000.

Stocks Analysis
The Nikkei 225 in Japan saw a gain of 0.3per cent in overnight trading, before the final part of the BOJ’s two day policy meeting.

Australian ASX/S&P 200 fell by 0.4 per cent following a data release that shows the trade deficit in Australia had increased more than anticipated. The S. Korea Kospi dropped 0.84 per cent on weakening Samsung share prices. The Dow Jones was at an all-time yesterday. The DJIA closed up 0.30 per cent. Investors will be watching to see if it can maintain this positive trend. Meanwhile the S&P 500 finished up 0.11 per cent and the NASDAQ closed down 0.05 per cent.

European stocks were higher on the day this morning in European trading ahead of the ECB meeting whereby we expect they will cut interest rates from 0.75 per cent in the short term. EURO STOXX 50 was up 0.51 per cent, the French CAC 40 was up 0.54 per cent on the day and the German DAX 30 was 0.32 per cent higher. Data released in Europe yesterday showed that the European economy had shrunk by 0.6 per cent in Q4, in line with expectations.

Forex Analysis
The British pound took a beating in Asian overnight trading , it was down 0.37 per cent against the Euro and down 0.26 per cent against the greenback. The USD/JPY was down 0.18per cent ahead of the conclusion of BOJ’s policy setting meeting and the USD was broadly higher against its counterparts on the back of strong Job data. The EUR inched up against the USD this morning but still stayed new its 3 month low. The pair hit 1.3071 in Asian session,

Commodities Analysis
Gold futures were on the up in this morning’s European session ahead of the ECB meeting where investors remain cautious and use gold as the safe haven. Both silver and gold were up 0.55 per cent on the day. Gold is traded at $1583.40 troy ounce for Apr deliver.

Crude oil remained little changed during European early session, slight falls as investors remain aware to the death of Venezuela’s President Chavez and cautious of the ECB meeting later.