Market News

Australia’s consumer price index climbed 1.3 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, while it rose 0.2 percent from the previous three months, exceeding a 0.1 percent forecast.

As worries grow that the Greek nation could soon default on its current debt and, with bankruptcy, perhaps be compelled to exit the Eurozone area, the Euro has continued to weaken against its major peers.

Speaking during a question and answer session in New York on Monday, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens told his audience that rate cuts were not "useless," but that their potential had become more limited.

The People’s Bank of China announced earlier that they were slashing banks’ reserve requirements in an effort to encourage bank lending while at the same time attempting to reverse the country’s slow growth trend.

According to well-known investor, Marc Faber, Greece is bankrupt and should default, positing that a "geopolitical game of chess" was being played out in the region.

As fears of a default weighed on European and U.S. stock and bond markets, the European head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday that Greece’s growth projections will need to be "significantly" revised down from the estimate made last week that Greece's economy would grow by 2.5 percent this year and 3.7 percent in 2016.

Again, it should be a quieter week, with the primary focus likely to fall upon the Australian Central Bank statement and Eurogroup Meetings. Get the economic and political calendar for the week of April 20, 2015 here.

Today’s March consumer price index is more important than usual since it is one piece of data that traders say could change their assumptions on Fed policy.

Over the past 18 months, the Australian Dollar has been under significant pressure, at one point striking a 6-year trough as growth prospects diminished.

European Central Bank (ECB) chief Mario Draghi dismissed fears of a Greek default at his regular press conference in Frankfurt on Wednesday, after the central bank announced that it was keeping interest rates steady.

London continues to compete with San Francisco's web expertise and New York's financial clout as it pushes to be the foremost financial technology - or fintech - center in the world. Already a center of the $5-trillion-a-day global currency market, it now wants to be home to a controversial upstart –bitcoin.

Early morning earnings reports from major financial companies and a few economic reports, including industrial production, could set the tone for today’s markets.

Recent comments made in Japan by one of the Prime Minister’s economic advisors have pushed the Japanese Yen to a 2-year peak versus the common currency Euro as FX traders consider the likelihood that the Yen’s value has deteriorated beyond the Japanese government’s intentions.

Greece is preparing to declare a debt default unless it can reach a deal with its international creditors by the end of April.

Commodity-linked currencies, notably the New Zealand and Australian Dollars, experienced a sharp decline after China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported earlier today that exports declined to -15% in March, well off the consensus expectations of a decline to only 12% and the worst numbers in 12 months.