After posting a tiny rebound the month prior Eurozone Retail Sales turned negative in March posting their second monthly decline this year. EZ March Retail Sales contracted by -0.6% versus forecasts of -0.3% - their worst reading since December 2008 - as European consumers fearful of rising unemployment continued to curb their spending.

Over the past few months, a rally in U.S. equities has generally been met with a sell-off in the U.S. dollar. The primary reason was because parking money into the low yielding U.S. dollar was synonymous with risk aversion. Therefore one would expect that today’s 2 percent rally in equities should have driven the U.S. dollar lower against all of the major currencies. We did see dollar weakness, but it was only against the Australian and New Zealand dollars. The greenback increased in value against the Euro and British pound leading many traders to wonder why those currencies failed to participate in the rally.

French consumer spending collapsed in December contracting by -0.9% versus -0.2% expected as sentiment sunk to its worst level since 1972. Despite the Christmas shopping season consumers in Europe's second largest economy kept their purse strings tightly shut as worries over the looming global recession dampened any urge to spend.