“END ECB DICTATORSHIP!”
Yes, this actually happened!
Last night’s ECB Press Conference with President Mario Draghi was interrupted as a protester from the gallery jumped onto the table, threw his papers in the air and shouted “End ECB dictatorship”!
If these stills aren’t enough for you, check out the looping video of the shenanigans here.
I guess this is what happens when you start letting ‘journalists’ with the accreditation of having a WordPress blog and Twitter account into the press gallery. We laugh now, but things could have been so much worse…
Oh and in case you were wondering, the ECB left interest rates on hold and remained “committed to its full asset-buying program to revive the euro zone economy.”
Bank of Canada:
The Bank of Canada also kept its key overnight lending rate unchanged Wednesday at 0.75 per cent. This came alongside a new forecast showing Canada’s oil-dependent economy has failed to grow at all in the first 3 months of the year.
With some obvious massive growth concerns, Poloz insisted the economy would snap back in the 2nd half of the year as the shock of the oil price collapse fades. A more hawkish than expected rhetoric, but one that the market obviously doesn’t believe as shown in our chart of the day below.
On the Calendar Today:
A big one for Australian traders this morning, with employment data that could be the last brick in the RBA road to another rate cut. Employment is expected to have increased March, with better job ad numbers supporting the expectation.
Another chunk of US data to come later in the evening to be aware of also.
Wednesday:
AUD Employment Change
AUD Unemployment Rate
USD Building Permits
USD Unemployment Claims
USD Philly Fed Manufacturing Index
Chart of the Day:
USD/CAD Daily:
Click on chart to see a larger view.
The market didn’t like the rhetoric out of the Bank of Canada last night, as USD/CAD broke out of it’s consolidation to the downside. This breakout came after a strong rally, followed by a period of consolidation on it’s highs.
Just be aware that although we have broken 1 trend line, we are still in a massive up trend and this could be seen as the beginning of a flag. In this current USD driven climate and with the chart still looking as bullish as it is, I won’t be jumping into shorts just yet.
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