The euro may have been off to a shaky start as both EUR/USD and EUR/JPY gapped down over the weekend, but these pairs managed to fill part of those gaps on Monday. EUR/USD opened at 1.3034, dipped to a low of 1.2955, then closed at 1.3057.
Euro zone economic reports came in mixed yesterday while political uncertainty in the region also affected the currency’s movement. First up, the Sentix investor confidence index for the euro zone missed expectations and printed a -24.5 reading, much lower than the estimated -15.3 figure and the previous month’s -14.7 reading. Later on, Germany posted a 2.2% increase in factory orders for March, way better than the consensus of a 0.5% uptick. On top of that, the previous month’s figure was revised upwards from 0.3% to 0.6%, giving the euro another boost.
Only the German industrial production report is on the euro zone’s agenda for today, and the report is expected to show a 0.8% increase for March. However, if the actual figure misses expectations or even posts another decline for the month, the euro could be forced to give up its recent gains. Keep an eye out for the actual figure due 10:00 am GMT.