StockMarketWire.com - The European morning session traded rather thinly owing to a lack of significant macroeconomic data releases, a tone that is set to continue for the rest of the afternoon’s session. However, given the advancement of automatic spending cuts in the USA, a return of the risk-on sentiment may be seen. Traders’ choice has so far been short yen, so a move of this nature could spark another large swing in the yen.

However, overnight (see Market overview at open) the yen traded positively, which was rather counter-intuitive given the nature of the country’s monetary policy moving forward.

Sterling fell against the dollar this morning after the UK construction purchasing managers' index (PMI) for February dipped more than expected. The UK construction PMI printed at 46.8 for February, compared to 48.7 the previous month. Analysts had expected the index to come at 49.2. The index has not printed in positive territory since November 2012.

Sterling has since regained early morning losses, pushing higher against the majority of its counterparts. The biggest movers across sterling pairs were; GBPUSD 1.504 +0.17% EURGBP 0.8635 -0.16% GBPCHF 1.4186 +0.12% GBPCAD 1.5475 +0.11%

In Europe, earlier macroeconomic data revealed the Spanish unemployment change for February was in a much better-than-expected position, coming in at 59.40k from an expectation of 77.5k month-on-month sending the euro currency higher. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index retreated 0.5% to 287.6 as well as the Italian FTSE MIB, which is down 0.6%.

Euro pairs continue to trade negatively against the majority of its counterparts. The largest swings in the euro pairs are; EURNZD 1.5779 -0.21% EURGBP 0.8635 -0.16% EURAUD 1.2804 -0.10% EURJPY 121.43 -0.10%

At 12:36pm:


Story provided by StockMarketWire.com