Asian session: The euro fell versus most of its 16 major counterparts

01:30 Australia RBA Meeting's Minutes -

01:30 Australia New Motor Vehicle Sales (MoM) March 0.0% 4.0%

01:30 Australia New Motor Vehicle Sales (YoY) March +1.7% 4.0%

04:30 Japan Industrial Production (MoM) (finally) February +1.9% -1.2% -1.6%

04:30 Japan Industrial Production (YoY) (finally) February -1.3% +1.5% +1.5%

05:00 Japan Consumer Confidence March 39.5 40.1 40.3

The euro fell versus most of its 16 major counterparts before Spain sells securities after borrowing costs climbed to the highest level this year, boosting concern Europe’s debt crisis is spreading. Yields on the nation’s 10-year notes soared as much as 18 basis points, or 0.18 percentage point, to 6.16 percent yesterday. That’s the highest level since Dec. 1 and is edging toward the 7 percent level that pushed Greece, Ireland and Portugal into rescues. The cost of insuring against a Spanish default rose eight basis points to 511 yesterday, the highest on record, according to CMA.

The 17-nation currency weakened against the greenback before reports that may show confidence among investors in Germany, The ZEW Center for European Economic Research in Mannheim will probably report today its index of investor and analyst expectations, which aims to predict economic developments six months in advance, fell to 19 in April from 22.3 in March, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Last month’s figure was the highest reading since June 2010.

Australia’s dollar declined for a third day versus its U.S. counterpart after the Reserve Bank said slower inflation would increase the prospects of an interest-rate reduction. Minutes released today of the RBA’s April 3 meeting, when officials held the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4.25 percent, reaffirmed that the next rate reduction h¼inges on an April 24 report on first-quarter inflation. Governor Glenn Stevens said in a statement after this month’s gathering that the board “judged the pace of output growth to be somewhat lower than earlier estimated.”

EUR/USD: during the Asian session the pair lowered below $1.3100.

GBP/USD: during the Asian session the pair fell, receded from yesterday's high.

USD/JPY: during the Asian session the pair traded in range Y80.30-Y80.55.

Today the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso meets German President Joachim Gauck, in Brussels. European data starts at 0600GMT with the release of ACEA new car registrations data. The main core-European releases come at 0900GMT with the German ZEW survey and final EMU HICP data. UK data at 0830GMT sees inflation data. In its February Inflation Report the Bank of England forecast CPI would average 3.35% in Q1. In Europe at 1230GMT, ECB President Mario Draghi is due to give an introductory speech at the Sixth ECB Statistics Conference, in Frankfurt. US data starts at 1230GMT, Housing Starts and Building Permits data are due. Weekly Johnson Redbook chain store sales data is due at 1255GMT. The IMF World Economic Outlook is also due at 1300GMT. At 1315GMT, US industrial production is expected to rise 0.2% in March after holding steady in Feb.