The euro and British pound generally consolidated their recent moves against the greenback, as EUR/USD fell within an intraday falling channel formation while GBP/USD traded between 1.5850-1.5920. Meanwhile, EUR/JPY pushed above 133, keeping the pair contained to a wedge formation, while GBP/JPY held above 150. The release of the German IFO survey – a gauge of sentiment on the services sector – showed much of the same patterns that we’ve seen in other confidence surveys like the German ZEW report. Indeed, sentiment on the overall business climate remained pessimistic at -5 in May, but did mark the second month of improvement. Looking to the components of the index, business expectations rose to -2 from -8 while sentiment on the current situation fell to -8 from -6, suggesting that while service providers are feeling the impact of the region’s recession, more of them are starting to anticipate that things will get better over the next six months.
Check out the Daily Fundamentals in its entirety for a look at what happened throughout the FX markets today.