BREAKING: EUR gains after IFO index beat

German Ifo Institute released a new set of sentiment indices for March at 9:00 am GMT today. Report was expected to show a small improvement in headline Business Climate index, driven by improvement in Expectations subindex. Current Conditions subindex was expected to stay more or less flat compared to February's reading.

Actual report turned out to be a positive surprise, with headline index jumping from 85.5 to 87.8. This increase was driven by bigger-than-expected jump in Expectations subindex as well as unexpected increase in Current Conditions index. 

Germany, IFO indices for March

• Business Climate: 87.8 vs 86.0 expected (85.5 previously)
• Expectations: 87.5 vs 84.7 expected (84.1 previously)
• Current Conditions: 88.1 vs 86.8 expected (86.9 previously)

EUR gained following the release, with EURUSD moving around 0.1% higher in a knee-jerk move. European indices, like DE40, dropped at first but have later recovered from losses and are now trading slightly higher compared to pre-release levels.

Source: xStation5