Market News

Greece appeared no closer to a reforms-for-aid deal after the country's finance minister met with his euro zone counterparts on Friday.

This week can be expected to be more active than last week, with the primary focus certain to fall upon the US Federal Reserve followed by the Bank of Japan and the Royal Bank of New Zealand the following day, as all will be releasing major policy statements and announcing interest rates.

With focus on a May 6 interest repayment to the International Monetary Fund and the next Eurogroup meeting on May 11 in Brussels, Greece has a number of funding hurdles to clear before then and beyond.

Driven by a lack of selling, Japanese yields fell below zero for the first time since January. Two-year yields fell one basis point to minus 0.015 percent following the central bank’s move to purchase 520 billion yen in debt.

After comments from an official of the New Zealand Reserve Bank which hinted at consideration for lower interest rates, the Kiwi Dollar skidded nearly 1.5% against its US rival during the Asian and European sessions.

Deutsche Bank will post a profit in the first quarter despite litigation costs of 1.5 billion euros ($1.61 billion), Germany's largest lender said on Wednesday.

Australia’s consumer price index climbed 1.3 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, while it rose 0.2 percent from the previous three months, exceeding a 0.1 percent forecast.

As worries grow that the Greek nation could soon default on its current debt and, with bankruptcy, perhaps be compelled to exit the Eurozone area, the Euro has continued to weaken against its major peers.

Speaking during a question and answer session in New York on Monday, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens told his audience that rate cuts were not "useless," but that their potential had become more limited.

The People’s Bank of China announced earlier that they were slashing banks’ reserve requirements in an effort to encourage bank lending while at the same time attempting to reverse the country’s slow growth trend.

According to well-known investor, Marc Faber, Greece is bankrupt and should default, positing that a "geopolitical game of chess" was being played out in the region.

As fears of a default weighed on European and U.S. stock and bond markets, the European head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday that Greece’s growth projections will need to be "significantly" revised down from the estimate made last week that Greece's economy would grow by 2.5 percent this year and 3.7 percent in 2016.

Again, it should be a quieter week, with the primary focus likely to fall upon the Australian Central Bank statement and Eurogroup Meetings. Get the economic and political calendar for the week of April 20, 2015 here.

Today’s March consumer price index is more important than usual since it is one piece of data that traders say could change their assumptions on Fed policy.

Over the past 18 months, the Australian Dollar has been under significant pressure, at one point striking a 6-year trough as growth prospects diminished.