EUR Strangled By Vanilla Options And Shallow Pullbacks

Let's call it another ‘dog day afternoon' in Europe ahead of the North American handover. There is very little to get excited about. Investors are waiting for the meat of this week's data release, starting with the FOMC gathering tomorrow and ending with the granddaddy of data, NFP on Friday. Until then, G10 currency vanilla option expiries are expected to keep this market somewhat occupied.

Euro equities have been helped by consumer confidence data from two of the union's stalwarts. Europe's largest economy, Germany saw its confidence edge higher in February from the previous month, beating most expectations (5.8 vs. 5.7). In France, the scenario was stable, month-over-month, with fewer households anticipating a rise in unemployment.

It seems that the German print has taken some comfort from the current calm in the Eurozone markets, and boosting consumer moral. This mornings GfK survey is just another in a plethora of upbeat sentiment surveys showing...