German companies remain upbeat about the economy, but fears about weakening exports due to a slowdown in the US and China are dampening the mood among German executives. Ifo Business Climate unexpectedly deteriorated in April, with the gauge slipping to 106.6 compared with 106.7 in the preceding month. In contrast, economists had expected the index to rise to 107.1 level within the month period. The European Central Bank's decision announced in March to cut its deposit rate further into negative territory as well as increase the pace of monthly asset purchases to 80 billion euro did not manage to spur the growth of the index. Even though the data disappointed, it is still an improvement on low figures at the end of last year. The Ifo Current Assessment sub-index, measuring current conditions in the Euro bloc's powerhouse, declined to 113.2 points, below last month's 113.8. The Ifo Expectations Index, indicating firms' expectations for the next six months, increased to 100.4 points, beating the previous figure of 100, while analysts had projected a marginal improvement to 100.9. Meanwhile, an alternative ZEW economic index survey showed a slight improvement as it inched higher to 11.2 from 4.3, while expectations were at 8 points. However it is still extremely low, as too many investors are still pessimistic about the next six months.
The Euro zone's private sector kept expanding moderately in April, but failed to gather momentum. The Markit Composite PMI, a forward-looking reading tracking development in the Euro bloc's manufacturing and services sectors came in at 53.0 in the reported month, down from 53.1 seen previously, when it rebounded from February's 13-month low. The manufacturing PMI declined to 51.5 in April, compared with 51.6 in the preceding month, while the services sector gauge rose to 53.2, slightly ahead of 53.1 in March, but undershooting economists' expectations of 53.3. The Euro zone's economic growth continued to be weak as the bloc's GDP expanded 0.3% in the final three months of 2015 on a quarterly basis, the same pace as in the three months through September. For all of 2015, economic output of the 19 countries using the Euro was up by 1.6% year-on-year. Business activity in Germany, the Euro zone's number one economy, decelerated more than expected in April. Markit's Composite PMI for Germany dropped to 53.8, down from 54.0 in March, which was the lowest level since September 2015. Economists, however, had expected acceleration to 54.2 in the reported month. Germany's manufacturing gauge climbed to 51.9, up from 50.7 in March, while the services PMI unexpectedly dropped to 54.6, down from 55.1.
Upcoming fundamentals: ECB's Constancio to talk as major US data is due
EUR/USD is bounded between 1.12 and 1.1280
EUR/USD established itself in a tight range between the 1.12 and 1.1280 marks, both represented by major demand and supply areas, respectively. The former is ready to contain a decline of the Euro by the monthly pivot along with the 55-day SMA. From the upside, the cap is delivered by the weekly pivot and the 20-day SMA. It seems that there exists an upside potential, given that the mentioned resistance looks weaker than the cited support. On the other hand, daily technical indicators tend to disagree and they suspect the pair will soon tackle the lower bound.SWFX sentiment on EUR is 57% short
Spreads (avg,pip) / Trading volume / Volatility
Average forecast says EUR/USD will trade near 1.11 by July
Meanwhile, traders, who were asked regarding their longer-term views on EUR/USD between March 26 and April 26 expect, on average, to see the currency pair around 1.11 by the end of July. Though 58% (+1%) of participants believe the exchange rate will be generally below 1.12 in ninety days, with 44% (+1%) alone seeing it below 1.08. Alongside, only 24% of those surveyed reckon the price will trade in the range between 1.12 and 1.18 on July 31.