Forex was calm on Tuesday, with variations on the main pairs not exceeding 0.1%... mostly to the Dollar's advantage (the '$-Index' climbed +0.05% to 104.30).

The E/$ (at 1.0835), the 'cable' ($/£ at 1.2625) and even the Canadian $ (at 1.3580) were perfectly stable.
The currency that 'shifted' was the Swiss Franc, which again lost -0.55% against the $ at 0.9040 and also lost 0.5% against the Euro at 0.9790/.9800.

The day's figures had little impact on exchange rates: the greenback firmed slightly on the back of the Conference Board's durable goods orders and consumer confidence figures.
The latter deteriorated very slightly in March: the confidence index calculated by the employers' organization came to 104.7 this month, compared with 104.8 in February.

While the consumer sentiment component measuring the current situation improved to 151 from 147.6 last month, the expectations component fell sharply to 73.8 from 76.3 in February.

The Commerce Department reports US durable goods orders up 1.4% last month on the previous month, following a sequential drop of 6.9% in January (revised from an initial estimate of 6.1%).

However, excluding the usually erratic transportation sector, where orders rebounded by 3.3% in February, US durable goods orders rose by just 0.5% over the period.

Other important indicators will follow, such as the latest estimate of US fourth-quarter GDP due on Thursday, but the highlight of the week will be the February household income and spending statistics.

This publication, whose price component is the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation, will refine forecasts for the Fed's forthcoming decisions.
On the yield side, the Dollar benefited from a +13pt rise in the US 10-year to 4.2550%, while Bunds and OATs eased -1.5pts and Italian BTPs -4.5pts.
Forex traders did not punish the Euro when they learned this morning of the size of France's public deficit for 2023 as a whole.
This will amount to 154 billion euros, or 5.5% of gross domestic product (GDP), after 4.8% in 2022 and 6.6% in 2021, according to data released this morning by Insee.

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