Euro rises against yen and U.S.dollar as Russia sanctions seen as modest: March 18, 2014

Market Review - 17/03/2014 20:40GMT

Euro rises against yen and U.S.dollar as Russia sanctions seen as modest

The single currency rose against the greenback on Monday after sanctions imposed by U.S. President Barrack Obama and EU on Russia improved risk appetite and triggered a rally in U.S. equities.

Earlier in the day, although euro remained under pressure in Asia and weakened to session low at 1.3879 ahead of European open, price rebounded to 1.3912 in European morning and then rallied to an intra-day high at 1.3948 in New York morning on increased risk appetite.

The White House said 'Obama freezes assets of Russian officials involved in incursion of Ukraine's Crimean region; Obama order imposes travel ban on Russian officials involved in Crimea incursion.'

Versus the Japanese yen, the greenback steadily gained throughout Asia and rose to session high at 101.88 in European morning before retreating to 101.56 in New York morning.

The British pound traded sideways in Asia and fell to session low at 1.6605 in European morning, due partly to active cross-selling of sterling vs euro. However, cable found support there and rose to an intra-day high at 1.6667 in New York morning on improved risk appetite before stabilizing.

In other news, BoE Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said 'biggest banks still couldn't be dismantled safely in a crisis; mutual trust between regulators needed to make financial reforms succeed, avoid unintended consequences; reforms like U.S. refinancing of foreign banks risks fragmenting global financial system.'

On the data front, U.S. NY Fed manufacturing came in below expectation at 5.61 vs forecast of 6.00.

Data to be released on Tuesday:

Italy trade balance, German ZEW current situation, ZEW expectation, EU ZEW expectation, U.S. CPI, housing starts, building permit, Redbook retail sales, long-term TIC flows.