Asian session: The euro weakened

The euro weakened against the other major currencies in the Asian session on Wednesday. Financial markets expect the European Central Bank to cut its deposit rate by at least 10 basis points and expand its asset-buying programme this week, but they still do not expect it to hit its inflation target in the near future. Markets are pricing in a deposit rate cut to -0.4 percent and 10 billion to 30 billion euros of extra bond buying every month. Long-term inflation expectations suggest, however, that those measures may not be effective - consumer price growth is not forecast to hit the ECB's target of just under 2 percent .

The Aussie dollar fell as the Westpac Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment fell by 2.2% in March from 101.3 in February to 99.1 in March. The Index is back to around its average reading over the last six months. Following the change of leadership of the Federal Government in September the Index lifted by 8.3% over the subsequent two months. It has broadly held those gains with today's reading off that high in November by 2.5% although we are now slightly back in the region where pessimists outnumber optimists.

EUR/USD: during the Asian session the pair fell to $1.0965

GBP/USD: during the Asian session the pair fell to $1.4175

USD/JPY: during the Asian session the pair traded in the range Y112.40-70