EUR/USD:
The European currency remains steady above 1.3150 since the beginning of the Asian session after some speculations that the Greece deal could be done during the week. Today the pair will be waiting for a collection of economic figures: German Retail Sales is expected to improve to 0.9% vs. -1.0%, French Consumer Spending is also expected to improve to 0.3% vs. -0.1%, German Unemployment Change is expected to come in at -8K vs. -22 K, Italian Unemployment Rate is expected to remain unchanged at 8.6%, and finally EU Unemployment Rate is expected to tick higher to 10.4% vs. 10.3%.
In the meantime, the technical indicators remain positive, but the Stochastic oscillator is still showing that the pair is heavily overbought, which continues to show that the pair has to retrace again to the downside during the week, the obstacle resistance stands around 1.3180 followed by 1.3200 for now.
German Retail Sales: Another leading indicator for goods sales during the previous month, but this index measures the total change in the sales value from the retail side. The index has a medium impact on the markets.
Unemployment Rate: A leading indicator for the jobs sector, which measures the total percentage of unemployed people who are still looking for full time jobs during the reported month.
French Consumer Spending: A lagging indicator that measures the total value spent by consumers during the reported month.
German Unemployment Change: A lagging indicator for unemployment rates that measures the change in the number of unemployed people during the reported month, lower results is usually good for the currency. The index has a medium impact on the markets during normal conditions.
United Kingdom
GBP/USD: The British pound continues to edge higher further, reaching as high as 1.5754 since the beginning of the Asian session. The pair will be waiting for a collection of economic releases today: Net Lending to Individual is expected to grow to 1.2B vs. 1.0B, M4 Money Supply is also expected to improve to 0.3% vs. -0.6%, and finally Mortgage Approvals is expected to improve slightly to 54K vs. 53K.
In the meantime, the technical indicators remain positive, while the pair will be facing a significant trend line resistance which stands around 1.5770 during the day, and which is unlikely to be broken during the week as a break above that resistance will be a sign that the short term down trend could be over. The obstacle support stands at 1.5660 which represents its 100 DAY MA.
Net Lending to Individual: A leading indicator for credits. The index measures the change in the total value of new credits issued by banks to consumers during the reported month.
M4 Money Supply: A lagging indicator that measures the change in the total quantity of domestic currency between circulation and deposits in the local banks.
Mortgage Approvals: A leading indicator for the housing markets that measures the change in the number of new mortgages approved for consumers during the previous month.