Asian session: The yen fell

00:00 China Bank holiday April

00:30 Australia Building Permits, m/m February -2.0% +2.4% 3.1%

00:30 Australia Building Permits, y/y February +12.8% +14.3% +10%

00:30 Australia Retail sales (MoM) February +1.2% +0.3% +1.3%

00:30 Australia Retail Sales Y/Y February +3.0% +4.6%

03:00 Japan BoJ Interest Rate Decision April 0.10% 0.10% 0.10%

03:00 Japan BoJ Monetary Policy Statement April

The yen fell versus all of its 16 major counterparts after the Bank of Japan announced larger- than-expected monthly bond purchases at the conclusion of a two- day meeting today. Japan’s currency slid against the euro and the dollar as BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and his peers adopted a two-year time horizon to achieve their 2 percent annual inflation goal. Today’s meeting was the first to be led by Kuroda since he took office last month. Japan’s central bank said it will buy 7 trillion yen ($74.3 billion) of bonds a month, exceeding the median 5.2 trillion yen predicted by economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before today’s decision.

Australia’s dollar gained for a fifth day as traders pared bets on interest-rate cuts after retail sales climbed by the most in more than three years. The so-called Aussie traded 0.2 percent from the strongest level in 10 weeks versus the U.S. currency as retail sales jumped 1.3 percent in February and building approvals rebounded.  Building approvals rebounded 3.1 percent in February from a revised 2.0 percent drop in January. A gauge of Australia’s services industry advanced to the highest level in 14 months.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session the pair was trading around $ 1.2840.

GBP / USD: during the Asian session, the pair traded in the range of $ 1.5125-45.

USD / JPY: during the Asian session, the pair rose above Y94.00.

Thursday's calendar sees a full schedule of releases and events on both sides of the Atlantic, with the lunch time policy announcements from the ECB and BOE set to dominate. Ahead of that, the other central bank event of the day sees the inaugural press conference from new BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, expected at 0630GMT. Kuroda will explain to the assembled press the BOJ's latest decision. The main EMU releases see the March services PMIs, starting at 0713GMT

with the release of the Spanish data. This is followed by the Italian data at 0743GMT, France at 0748GMT, Germany at 0753GMT and the Eurozone at 0758GMT. Further EMU data is expected from 0900GMT, with the release of the Eurozone