EUR17 Billion Cyprus Bailout Leaves Market Jittery

A recent spate of positive data from the US pushes the dollar higher today, while investors lock in profits. Investors are on the lookout for more US data releases later today.

The EUR got stronger following from CPI data showing no change of the inflation rate from 1.8per cent last month. This was as expected. Attendees At Day 2 of the European Union summit continue to thrash out a Cyprus bailout package leaving investors jittery.

In Japan, the nomination by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of the Kuroda as the new Governor was approved as well as two nominees for the post of deputy. This opens up the way for new aggressive monetary easing policies which should help buoy the national currency.

Stocks Technical Analysis
Another record day yesterday for DJIA closing price yesterday and S&P following in the same direction. At the close of trading yesterday the DJIA closed up 0.58 per cent, S&P 500 up 0.56per cent and NASDAQ up 0.43 per cent. Futures pre-open today point to a slight dip of the DJIA, and a 0.04 per cent loss on the S&P with NASDAQ 100 futures strengthening.

This comes off the back of U.S. Depsrtment of Labor figures that initial weekly jobless claims dropped by 10,000 to 332,000, exceeding expectations of an increase of 8000.

European stocks open lower today as investors remain jittery over the EU summit outcome for the Cypriot bailout. EURO STOXX 5000 was down 0.30 per cent, French CAC 40 was down 0.32 per cent and German DAX 30 down 0.06 per cent. Estimations for a bailout given by Cyprus were originally EUR17 billion, of which EUR10 billion is to inject the banks with capital and EUR 7 billion for repaying debt and general governmental funding.

Forex
The dollar was mostly lower against its counterparts today during the European morning session. The EUR/USD pair gained 0.46per cent to 1.3064.

The USD sunk against the GBP with the pair climbing 0.45 per cent to 1.5157.

The USD held firm against the JPY with the USD/JPY pair inching up 0.03 per cent to touch 96.13. The dollar sunk against the Swiss France with the USD/CHF pair shedding 0.44 per cent to 0.9430.

The USD/CAD crept down 0.14per cent to trade at 1.0207 while the AUS/USD descended by 0.16 per cent to 1.0368.

Commodities
The price of oil is pushed up off the back of the upbeat economic data in the US. Crude oil traded at $93.25, a rise of 0.23 per cent in this morning’s Asian session.

Meanwhile gold prices went down this morning, as the strong data pushed investors into the stocks markets. Gold for April delivery was trading at $1588,70 a 0.13 per cent drop on the day.

Natural gas futures rise to levels not seen since November 2012, after data releases show that supplies were much less than expected last week. Futures for April delivery were trading at $3.791 per Btmu, a massive 3 per cent gain.