The Bank of England announced the decision to keep its interest rate at 0.50 percent today as widely expected. The BOE had last reduced its interest rate on 
March 5th by 50 basis points to bring the rate to its lowest level on record. The bank also renewed its pledge to spend the remaining balance on the 75 billion pound quantitative easing program of buying government and corporate bonds. The bank stated that they have already spent over 26 billion pounds from the program.
Australian unemployment rate edges up 0.1% in March.
The Australian Labour force decreased more than expected in March according to a data release by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. March employment fell by a seasonally adjusted 34,700 workers from February to a total of 10,771,800 unemployed workers. The unemployment rate increased 0.5 percent to a 5.7 percent and marked the highest jobless rate in over five years. The jobs data surpassed the economic forecasts that were expecting employment to decrease by 25,000 for the month following a revised increase of 1,100 in February. Full-time employment fared the worst in March with a loss of 38,900 jobs while part-time employment increased by 4,200 workers for the month.
Canadian Employment falls more than expected in March.
Canadian employment decreased in March by 61,000 workers according to a report released by Statistics Canada today. The unemployment rate increased to 8.0 percent in March from 7.7 percent and Canadian employment has now fallen by 357,000 jobs since October 2008. Economic forecasts had expected Canadian employment to decrease by 50,000 workers for the month.
All the jobs losses in March were full-time jobs and full-time employment has now shed 387,000 jobs since October while part-time employment has created 30,000 jobs in the same time frame. The largest declines in employment were seen in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. The Manufacturing sector shed 34,000 jobs in March while construction lost 18,000 jobs and finance, insurance, real estate & leasing slashed 20,000 jobs. Positively contributing to the jobs data was an increase in “other services” jobs by 23,000 and business, building & other support services which created 13,000 jobs.
Forex Trading – USD mixed today.
The U.S. dollar has been mixed in forex trading today against the major currencies. The dollar has gained against the euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Japanese yen while falling versus the Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar and Canadian dollar.
The euro declined versus the dollar from today’s 1.3263 opening to trading at approximately 1.3164 at the end of the US trading session at 5:53pm EST according to currency data from Oanda. The British pound has declined today versus the dollar from 1.4716 to trading at 1.4669 dollars per pound. The dollar has advanced against the Japanese yen today as the USD/JPY has gained from its 99.87 opening rate to trading at 100.44.
The dollar has fallen against the Canadian dollar after opening at 1.2367 earlier today to trading later at 1.2248. Against the Swiss franc, the USD gained ground from the 1.1487 opening to trading at 1.1563.
The New Zealand and Australian dollars both advanced today against the US dollar from their opening exchange rates. The NZD/USD currently trades at 0.5832 after opening at 0.5797 while the AUD/USD trades at 0.7192 after opening today at 0.7096.
USD/JPY Chart – The USD gaining today against the Japanese Yen in Forex Trading and surpassing the 100 yen to dollar mark.
