Trading Thursday's ECB Press Conference Using Forex Binary Options

The main macro event today will be the interest rate announcement by the ECB due out at 7:45 am (with the Bank of England reporting earlier on its rate and QE plan, both of which remained unchanged as expected, which will remain the case until Carney comes on board) which is expected to be a continuation of the policy, with no rate cut despite some clamoring by pundits that Draghi should cut rates even more.

Cliff Wachtel submits: For background, be aware of the likely key market drivers this week.

As expected, no changes in any of the three key rates from the ECB. 4 April 2013 - Monetary policy decisions   At today’s meeting the Governing Council of the ECB decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.75%, 1.50% and 0.00% respectively.

As was largely expected by the sell-side, the ECB kas kept all three key rates unchanged, just like the BOE 45 minutes earlier. From the ECB: At today’s meeting the Governing Council of the ECB decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.75%, 1.50% and 0.00% respectively.

As expected by most, the ECB just announced its three key interest rates unchanged, meaning the surge in the trade- weighted EUR will continue to weigh on European exports. From the ECB: 7 February 2013 - Monetary policy decisions  

Cliff Wachtel submits: Last Monday and Tuesday fear over spiking PIIGS bond yields that drove markets lower; Except for some better than expected Chinese, UK, and US manufacturing PMIs and German retail data Wednesday, the rest of the week was dominated by optimism from leaked news of ECB PIIGS bond purchases.

While the ECB's refinancing rate cut of 25 bps was very much expected, and just took place, what was unanticipated was that the Marginal Lending Facility (which last time we checked was used by pretty much nobody) was also cut, from 1.5% to 1.0%. The deposit rate, at 0.00%, was obviously left unchanged. From the ECB:

No change from the ECB as expected, and despite a hint by Draghi last time that the governing council may cut rates, it did not. The boredom continues until 8:30 am Eastern when Draghi takes the podium and resumes his rendition of Greenspan. From the ECB