EUR / USD
Euro-zone production data remained gloomy with a sharp 1.6% decline in French production and a 0.7% drop in Italian output for January with the Euro initially dipping lower during Thursday’s European session. There was a firm recovery in Euro-zone equity markets with financial stocks rallying strongly after a run of heavy losses which curbed defensive Euro demand. There were rumours that the ECB could buy banking-sector bonds as part of any extended quantitative easing programme. In c…
Euro-zone production data remained gloomy with a sharp 1.6% decline in French production and a 0.7% drop in Italian output for January with the Euro initially dipping lower during Thursday’s European session. There was a firm recovery in Euro-zone equity markets with financial stocks rallying strongly after a run of heavy losses which curbed defensive Euro demand. There were rumours that the ECB could buy banking-sector bonds as part of any extended quantitative easing programme. In c…