A surprisingly upbeat outlook among German business managers as evidenced by the ZEW surveys helped to lift the common currency Euro. According to the most recent survey, while the current economic situation in German is somewhat bleak with a reading of 47.7 (down from 50.7 in March), the sentiment or outlook jumped to 11.2 in April (from 4.3). That, in turn, helped the Zew survey results for the overall Eurozone area, which surged with a sentiment reading of 21.5 (from 10.6), beating estimates of a reading of 13.9.
As reported at 10:55 am (BST) in London, the EUR/USD was trading at $1.1334, up 0.19%; the pair had earlier hit a session high of $1.1345, while the session low stands at $1.1302. The EUR/JPY was also higher at 123.9535 Yen, a gain of 0.68% in volatile trading; in today’s trading session, the pair has ranged from a low of 123.0815 Yen to a peak of 124.0772 Yen.
Yen Pressured by BOJ Comments
The Japanese Yen is under some pressure as safe haven bids retreat after an improvement in risk sentiment. FX traders remain wary of an intervention from the Bank of Japan and thus are hesitant to push the Yen much higher. Recently, in a Wall Street Journal interview, Haruhiko Kuroda, the BOJ Governor, admitted that the inflationary trend could be impacted if the Japanese Yen was allowed to continue to rise excessively. Currently, the USD/JPY pair is trading at 109.3595 Yen, up 0.48% for the greenback.