EUR/USD: Unchanged As Markets Eye US Employment, Manufacturing Reports

 | Feb 19, 2015 07:24AM ET

EUR/USD continues to have an uneventful week, as the pair trades at the 1.14 line on Thursday. On the release front, French CPI posted a sharp decline of 1.0%. Eurozone Current Account dipped to EUR 17.8 billion, well below expectations. In the US, there are two key releases on the calendar – Unemployment Claims and the Philly Fed Manufacturing Index. The markets are expecting stronger readings from both indicators.

Is an agreement in sight between Greece and its creditors? Eurozone finance ministers were unable to draft an agreement on Monday, but the finance ministers will try again on Friday. Greece has apparently requested an extension of the bailout, which expires next week. However, the details of the request are not clear, and the parties will likely conduct tough negotiations at the Friday meeting. The stakes are high, since if the bailout does not continue, Greece could be forced to leave the eurozone and abandon the euro.

On Thursday, the ECB takes a step aimed at improving transparency, as the central bank will publish a summary of its policy meeting for the first time. This should make for interesting reading, as the ECB decided to implement its QE program at its previous meeting. The publication of the minutes will bring the ECB in line with other central banks such as the Federal Reserve and the BOJ.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its previous policy meeting. The minutes were decidedly dovish in nature, as Fed policymakers raised concerns that a mid-year rate hike could hurt the economic recovery. The Fed also said it was worried about the impact of global events on the US economy, such as the slowdown in China and the Greek financial crisis. With US inflation at low levels, the Fed is not in any rush to raise rates, so speculation of a mid-year rate may have been premature.