Prices of products sold by Canadian manufacturers, as measured by the Industrial Product Price Index (IPPI), increased 0.8% in March, mainly due to higher prices for energy and petroleum products and pulp and paper products. Prices for raw materials purchased by Canadian manufacturers, as measured by the Raw Materials Price Index (RMPI), rose 2.1%, primarily due to higher prices for crude energy products.

Personal income increased $47.8 billion (0.3 percent) in March according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI) increased $39.8 billion (0.3 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $61.7 billion (0.4 percent).

Real DPI increased 0.2 percent in March and Real PCE increased 0.4 percent. The PCE price index increased less than 0.1 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.2 percent.

The $50.0 billion increase in real PCE in March reflected an increase of $24.2 billion in spending for goods and a $26.8 billion increase in spending for services. Within goods, purchases of recreational goods and vehicles was the leading contributor to the increase. Within services, the largest contributor to the increase was spending for household electricity and gas.

Consumer price index, April 2018:

• +1.6% on the same month a year earlier (provisional)

• 0.0% on the previous month (provisional)

Harmonised index of consumer prices, April 2018:

• +1.4% on the same month a year earlier (provisional)

• -0.1% on the previous month (provisional)

The inflation rate in Germany as measured by the consumer price index is expected to be 1.6% in April 2018. Based on the results available so far, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that the consumer prices are expected to remain unchanged on March 2018.

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The annual growth rate of the broad monetary aggregate M3 decreased to 3.7% in March 2018, from 4.2% in February.

The annual growth rate of the narrower aggregate M1, which includes currency in circulation and overnight deposits, decreased to 7.5% in March, from 8.4% in February.

The annual growth rate of adjusted loans to households increased to 3.0% in March, from 2.9% in February. The annual growth rate of adjusted loans to non-financial corporations increased to 3.3% in March, from 3.2% in February

The KOF Economic Barometer for April points to an almost stable economic development. It has risen minimally, by 0.2 points, to 105.3 points. Although the Barometer currently does not reach the positive values seen at the turn of the year 2017/2018, the current value is clearly above long-term average. The Swiss economic outlook remains favourable.

China's manufacturing sector grew at a slower pace in April, says rttnews.

The official manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index fell slightly to 51.4 in April from 51.5 in March. Nonetheless, the score remained above 50, indicating expansion in the sector.

NBS senior statistician Zhao Qinghe, said the manufacturing sector continued to maintain its steady growth trend.

Meanwhile, the non-manufacturing PMI that covers services and construction, improved to 54.8 from 54.6 a month ago.

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New house sales in Australia's five largest states declined by 2.0 per cent during March, meaning that sales have fallen in each of 2018's first three months. Three consecutive months of decline in sales volumes were last recorded between July and September of last year. Overall, new house sales fell back by 2.2 per cent during the March 2018 quarter compared with the last three months of 2017. Over the 12 months to March 2018, new house sales were 4.1 per cent lower than in the previous 12 month period.

According to provisional data turnover in retail trade in March 2018 was in real terms 1.3% and in nominal terms 2.6% larger than in March 2017. The number of days open for sale was 26 in March2018 and 27 in March 2017.

Compared with the previous year, turnover in retail trade was in the first three months of 2018 in real terms 1.6% and in nominal terms 2.9% larger than in the corresponding period of the previous year.

EUR/USD

Resistance levels (open interest**, contracts)

$1.2305 (1881)

$1.2263 (2308)

$1.2228 (866)

Price at time of writing this review: $1.2128

Support levels (open interest**, contracts):

$1.2040 (2321)

$1.1995 (3174)

$1.1947 (1133)

Comments:

- Overall open interest on the CALL options and PUT options with the expiration date May, 4 is 86636 contracts (according to data from April, 27) with the maximum number of contracts with strike price $1,2650 (4261);

GBP/USD

Resistance levels (open interest**, contracts)

$1.4055 (891)

$1.4008 (706)

$1.3964 (1061)

Price at time of writing this review: $1.3783

Support levels (open interest**, contracts):

$1.3683 (1988)

$1.3640 (877)

$1.3595 (636)

Comments:

- Overall open interest on the CALL options with the expiration date May, 4 is 22769 contracts, with the maximum number of contracts with strike price $1,4400 (3256);

- Overall open interest on the PUT options with the expiration date May, 4 is 26101 contracts, with the maximum number of contracts with strike price $1,3800 (2401);

- The ratio of PUT/CALL was 1.15 versus 1.09 from the previous trading day according to data from April, 27

* - The Chicago Mercantile Exchange bulletin (CME) is used for the calculation.

** - Open interest takes into account the total number of option contracts that are open at the moment.