The EUR/CHF pair fluctuated heavily yesterday after the downbeat French bond sale and the flow of weak fundamentals; however, the Swiss franc was not able to record huge gains against the euro as the pessimism inEuropesent both currencies to the downside. But in general the Swiss franc was less negative during the session and gained slight strength against the common currency.
With the lack of fundamentals from Switzerland yesterday and due to the strength of the U.S. dollar, which reached the highest record seen since January 2011, the euro decline in a faster pace than the Swiss franc, which was only affected by the deteriorating sentiment in Europe.
Switzerlandwill release today the CPI index for December, which is expected to drop further, adding more pressures onSwitzerland, which is suffering from deflation.Europeon the other hand will provide markets with the confidence figures and the retails sales index in addition to the unemployment rate, which is expected to remain unchanged at 10.3%.
Switzerlandwill start the session at 08:15 GMT with the CPI index for December, with expectations the monthly CPI index could have dropped by 0.1% from the previous drop of 0.2%, while the annual index is projected to drop by 0.6% from the previous drop of 0.5%. In addition, the monthly and annual CPI EU Harmonised previous readings were -0.4% and -0.8% respectively.
The euro zone will join the session at 10:00 GMT with Confidence Report of December, where the business climate indicator is expected to drop further to 0.46 from 0.44, while the consumer confidence final index is expected unrevised at -21.2. The economic confidence could have eased to 93.2 from 93.7, while the industrial and services confidence are projected to drop further to 7.5 and 2.1 from 7.3 and 1.7 respectively.
The euro-area region will also provide markets with the Retail Sales index and the Unemployment rate, where the annual retail sales index could have dropped by 0.9% from the previous drop of 0.9%, while the monthly index is projected to fall by 0.4% from the prior expansion of 0.4%. The unemployment rate could have remained unchanged at 10.3%.
Germanywill join the session at 11:00 GMT with the Factory Orders index for November, where the seasonally adjusted monthly index is projected to drop by 1.6% from the previous expansion of 5.2%, while the non-seasonally adjusted annual index could have fallen by 1.2% from the prior growth of 5.4%.
Originally posted here
