German import prices fell at the fastest pace in more than six years in April on slipping energy prices. Import prices decreased 6.6% on year-on-year basis in April after falling 5.9% in March, while number of economists anticipated a 6.2% decline for April. The 6.6% year –on-year fall in April was the biggest drop since October 2009, when prices slid 8.1% and have been falling since January 2013. Excluding crude and mineral oil products, import prices decreased 4% from same period of last year, and import prices of energy plunged 30.8%. On a monthly basis, the picture of import prices was also worse than expected as prices slid by 0.1% confounding expectations for a 0.3% rise and March's 0.7% gain. Moreover, at the same time, export prices fell 2% annually in April, following a 1.6% decrease in March, and on month-on-month basis, the export price index fell 0.1%. In addition, a separate report showed that French household consumption expenditure on goods was virtually stable in April 2016. The continent's second largest economy saw its consumers increase their volume of spending by 0.2% last time. Another rise, this time of 0.1% is on the cards. Moreover, expenditures on energy as well as on durables slowed down sharply, while consumption of food products dropped markedly.
Australian building approvals increased for a third consecutive month during the April, thus spurring doubts on the relatively common opinion that residential construction will slow in the future years. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, approvals advanced 3% to 20,243 after seasonal adjustments, and were better than market expectations of a plunge of 3%. This figure was 0.7% higher than levels of a year earlier, as well as was the highest monthly total since October 2015. The strength of the release was mainly affected by private sector excluding houses — namely apartments — which soared 8.1% reaching 10,548, thus reimbursing a decrease in private sector housing approvals which plunged 1.9% slipping to 9,695. Overall, the following data shows there were more apartments than freestanding houses approved in April. Following situation had never been seen before. Another data, which was also revealed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, showed that Australia's current account deficit narrowed to a seasonally adjusted -$20.79 billion in the first quarter from the fourth quarter of last year. Economists, in turn, had expected a current account deficit of $19.5 billion in the quarter. Meanwhile, the fourth quarter deficit was upwardly revised to $22.63 billion from the $21.11 billion initially reported.
Upcoming fundamentals: Busy European session ahead
EUR/USD keeps targeting 200-day SMA
Daily chart: EUR/USD recovered from the 1.11 mark on Monday, after shortly touching the major support represented by the 200-day SMA down there. Over the session the pair gained about 25 pips overall; however, we foresee more weakness in the upcoming future. EUR/USD will highly likely face some downside momentum generated by the weekly pivot at 1.1155, which is immediately succeeded by the sharp May downtrend and the 100-day SMA. Just a close above all of them will refresh the possibility of a spike back to the 1.12 area. Daily technical indicators continue backing the Euro's losses.SWFX sentiment pulls back into bearish zone
Spreads (avg,pip) / Trading volume / Volatility
Average forecast says EUR/USD will trade at 1.13 by August
Meanwhile, traders, who were asked regarding their longer-term views on EUR/USD between April 31 and May 31 expect, on average, to see the currency pair around 1.13 by the end of August. Though 56% (+1%) of participants believe the exchange rate will be generally below 1.14 in ninety days, with 43% (+1%) alone seeing it below 1.10. Alongside, 25% (+1%) of those surveyed reckon the price will trade in the range between 1.14 and 1.20 on August 31.