European session: the British Pound was down slightly

Data

02:00 China Leading Index April 0.0% +1.5%

09:00 Eurozone Construction Output, m/m March -0.3% -1.7%

09:00 Eurozone Construction Output, y/y March +1.7% +7.9%

09:30 United Kingdom MPC Member Weale Speaks

The pound fell against the dollar, approaching its second weekly decline, due to speculation that the Fed may resort to stop stimulation, which increased the demand for the U.S. currency.

The dynamics are also influenced by the statement of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, who said that "we are ready to reduce the program of bond purchases in the coming months if the economy continues to grow. It is clear that the labor market situation has improved since September. " Moreover, he added that it would take a further improvement of the situation in order to convince me that "significant improvement" corresponds to the situation, "but if things go as expected," we could reduce some of the pace of our purchases of securities, perhaps as early as this summer. If all goes as hoped, we might end up buying program somewhere at the end of this year. "He added, however, that uncertainty surrounds the outlook, and if he is wrong about the economy," we will adjust our purchases accordingly in Depending on how the economy running. Note that during the meeting of officials offered differing opinions about the prospects for continued efforts the Fed to buy about $ 85 billion a month in Treasury and mortgage debt.

Value of the dollar rose slightly against the euro, after the latest data, which were published today by Statistics agency Eurostat showed that in March the eurozone construction output continued to decline, registering with the fifth consecutive monthly decline. According to the report, a monthly basis, the volume of construction in April fell 1.7 percent, which followed a decline of 0.3 percent in February, while the year-on-year decline was 7.9%, compared with growth of 1.7% in March. Construction of buildings and civil engineering fell by 1.4% and 2.4%, respectively. We also add that in the first quarter as a whole, construction output fell by 3.0%, which was significantly greater than the decline of 1.8% recorded in the last three months of last year. At the same time, the data showed that the annualized volumes declined in ten Member States and improved in four. The largest annual decline was registered in Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Poland. Meanwhile, Spain and Hungary reported the highest growth rates. Statistical Office reported that the decline in construction was distributed across the euro zone (the volume of construction in the EU-27 decreased by 1.1% on a monthly basis, and fell by 7.2% per annum), and even in Germany (by 3.1% ), which narrowly avoided slipping into recession in the first quarter. In monthly terms, the largest decline in construction was recorded in Portugal (10.7%), which reflects the current austerity as to how the country is struggling to reduce the budget deficit.

EUR / USD: during the European session, the pair is hovering around $ 1.2850-$ 1.2890

GBP / USD: during the European session, the pair dropped to $ 1.5221

USD / JPY: during the European session, the pair rose to Y102.63, then dropped to Y102.26

At 12:30 GMT Canada released the consumer price index and core consumer price index from the Bank of Canada in April, as well as become aware of a change in the volume of wholesale trade for March. At 13:55 GMT the United States will publish the consumer sentiment index from the University of Michigan in May.