23.02.201801:46 Forex Analysis & Reviews: ECB report disappointed traders

The European currency remained under pressure in tandem with the US dollar after the release of a weak report on the business climate in Germany. The traders were also not optimistic about the report of the European Central Bank on monetary policy.

According to the Ifo Institute, the German business climate index declined for the month of January this year. This was due to the fact that the expectations of the companies in the manufacturing sector deteriorated for the next six months.

Thus, the business sentiment index in February fell to 115.4 points from 117.6 points in January, while economists had expected the index to reach 117 points for the month of February. Despite this, the market reaction was rather restrained, as many traders were also confident that it would be difficult to surpass the positive sentiment in the German economy observed at the beginning of the year. The additional problems for exporters as reflected in the mood index, created a strong euro, as well as volatile capital markets.

The publication of the minutes from the last meeting of the European Central Bank put pressure on the European currency because many traders and investors did not find the necessary signals from the regulator in connection with the end of the bond redemption program, which is expected to be completed this fall.

Thus, the leaders of the ECB considered the inflation to still be too low as discussed in their January meeting. This suggests that it is too early to change monetary policy.

As for the technical picture of the EURUSD pair, there have been no significant changes compared to the morning forecast. Still, you can expect to form an upward correction towards the end of the week, which may start from the support levels of 1.2260 and 1.2240 in the short term. However, there is no need to exclude today's possibility of sellers updating to a larger support area of 1.2210, where large players will also announce themselves.

The British pound negatively reacted to the UK GDP report and fell in the morning against the US dollar. According to the data, the UK economy in the fourth quarter of 2017 grew weaker than expected.

The report of the National Bureau of Statistics indicates that the UK GDP in the fourth quarter grew only by 0.4% against a preliminary estimate of 0.5%. On an annualized basis, GDP growth in the fourth quarter was revised downward to 1.6% from 2.0%. For the entire 2017, the UK's GDP grew by 1.7%. The main problem for the government remains to be the Brexit, which continues to affect many sectors of the economy.