ECB Data Call Today To Cause Interesting Market Movements

Binary options traders can expect a lot of market volatility today on the back of important data and event releases. These include US employment data figures which should show minor improvements and German Industrial data which should show no change. Although it is the ECB policy data call which will cause the greatest market volatility and should encourage major movements in the market to the advantage of binary options traders.

Investors remain cautious while waiting for the outcome of the ECB meeting to discern policy later today. It is expected that the European Central Bank will make no change to the current rate of 0.75 %. After the ECB meeting investors will keep a close eye on the press conference led by Pres. Mario Draghi as this is expected to reveal indications on the direction of monetary policy.

Stocks
Asian stocks overnight were mixed to lower as sentiment remains cautious ahead of the ECB meeting, the biggest change in Asian stocks was in Australia’s S&P/ASX200 Index which rose by 0.3% amid the positive employment data in the region. Eurozone stocks inched upwards following on from encouraging progress in dealing with the Euro zone debt crisis. During morning trading in European markets the EURO STOXX 50 gained by 0.27% while the French CAC 40 rose by 0.07% and the German DAX creeped up by 0.06%. Yesterday a spokesperson from the German Government commented that the EuRO was not overvalued and that changing the exchange rate was not a suitable way to increases attractiveness of the single currency.

This followed on from the French President Hollande who commented on a targeted exchange rate on Tues.

European financial stocks generally gained while German lenders Deutsche Bsank and Commerzbank increased by 0.22% and 0.13% respectively. French banks Societe General and BNP Paribas rose by 0.54%and 1.17%.

The FTSE 100 in UK crept up by 0.09% as sentiment remained cautious ahead of BoE’s policy announcement later today. UK finance stocks were mostly lower. Lloyds Bank shares lost 0.27%, HSBC declined by 0.32% and RBS slipped 0.32%. Contrarily Barclays saw an advancement in their share price with an increase of 0.48%.

US indices showed mixed readings ahead of the ECB policy meeting with DJIA showing 0.02% decrease, S&P 500 futures showed a 0.04% drop and NASDAQ 100 futures showed a 0.08% rise.

Later today keep your eyes open for the government jobless claims data in the US which will directly impact US stocks.

FX
ECB policy meeting today affected the USD which dropped against the EURO while it held its ground against the Japanese Yen. EURUSD was up 0.341% to 1,3561. USD was near its highest high against the Japanese Yen today since mid 2010. USD/JPY rose to 93.78 which is a 0.17% rise. USD was trading at nearly 5 month high against the GBP at a rate of 0.15671 which us a 0.08% increase. Bank of England is to announce its interest rate later today. The biggest shaker was the AUD/USD which rose 0.14% after the positive employment data in Australia.

Commodities

Commodities stayed steady ahead of the European Central Bank’s policy meeting. Copper futures near unmoved from a 1 week low this morning. On Comex rates of copper were traded at $3.739 per pound which is a decline of 0.1% on the day. Gold kept its position as futures on Comex traded at $1678.45 troy ounce. Gold prices expected to find support at $1653.35 and short term resistance at $1685.65. Crude oil futures creep up slightly while futures for March are traded at $96.77 a barrel which is a 0.15% increase on the day.