EUR: eurozone consumer confidence still deep in negative territory

The only release of note from the eurozone yesterday was the flash consumer confidence reading for February. Last time around, the figure came in at a disappointing -7.9 and the markets had been expecting a very slight increase to -7.8. However, the figure actually rose by 0.5 points to hit -7.4. While that beat expectations, it will still be of some concern that the reading is deep into negative territory.

The euro made some gains against the euro to post the third successive day of strength against the greenback. However, the moves were within a very tight range as the markets were fairly quiet throughout the day.

Today we will see the German inflation rate for January, as well as manufacturing and services PMI readings from Germany and the eurozone. The euro area needs some positive news sooner rather than later as it has been struggling of late. Whether today will help matters is up for debate, with the markets expecting very slight movements across the board.