ForexLive European FX news wrap: Dollar lightly lower on mixed markets

Headlines:

• USD/JPY stays poised near multi-year highs, but Tokyo warnings grow louder
• A less hectic week beckons after last week’s central bank bonanza
• ECB’s Lane: We’re confident that wage growth is returning to normal
• ECB’s Panetta: There is growing consensus on a possible rate cut
• UK March CBI retailing reported sales +2 vs -7 prior

Markets:

• GBP leads, CHF lags on the day
• European equities lower; S&P 500 futures down 0.4%
• US 10-year yields up 2.5 bps to 4.243%
• Gold up 0.3% to $2,169.77
• WTI crude up 0.4% to $80.98
• Bitcoin down 0.5% to $66,841

It was a relatively quiet session as markets settle down after the hectic period last week. This is the final trading week for March, so month-end and quarter-end flows might factor into the equation in the days ahead. But for today, there isn’t much of anything as broader markets were more mixed.

The dollar is down slightly after a modest rebound towards the end of last week. That comes despite slightly higher Treasury yields on the day while equities are marked lower in European trading.

EUR/USD is up 0.2% to 1.0828 but the less than 30 pips range for the day is still leaving a lot to be desired. Meanwhile, USD/JPY is flattish around 151.30 as Tokyo ramps up verbal intervention against further yen weakness for now.

The commodity currencies are up slightly with USD/CAD down 0.2% to 1.3585 while AUD/USD is up 0.3% to 0.6530 on the day. The changes aren’t anything to shout about compared to the moves at the end of last week.

In other markets, US futures tilted lower during the session with S&P 500 futures now down 0.4%. European indices were lightly changed at the open but are also now slightly in the red, consolidating at recent highs.

The economic calendar this week is going to be less eventful but we’ll see how markets take to things in wrapping up Q1 trading. As a reminder, it will be a holiday-shortened week in Europe amid the upcoming Easter holidays.

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.