*JOLTS Job Opportunities data from the USA at 17.00 came in at 9.590M, falling short of expectations. Another data that came in the same hour was Factory Orders and this data was realized as 0.9%. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) increased the interest rate by 25 basis points to 3.85% at its meeting this morning, contrary to expectations. The interest rate was expected to remain constant at 3.60%. In the statement, it was stated that inflation is very high and higher interest rates may be needed to bring it to its knees.

*The retail sales data announced in Germany for March came in the opposite direction of the expectations. In the monthly data, retail sales fell to -2.4% against the expectations of a positive change from -0.3% to 0.4%. Compared to the same period of the previous year, it was expected to be updated from -7.1% to -6.1%, but decreased to -8.6%.

*In the Euro Area, consumer price index (CPI) realized as 0.7% on a monthly basis, against the expectations of 0.9%. On an annual basis, it increased by 7.0% as expected. Core consumer inflation rose 1.0% month-on-month against the forecast of 1.1%. On an annual basis, an increase of 5.6% was realized against the expectation of 5.7% increase. The fact that inflation, which was announced before the European Central Bank’s interest rate meeting on Thursday, remains high, may be a sign that the interest rate hike can be continued.

*In April manufacturing PMI data, Germany manufacturing PMI decreased from 44.7 to 44.5, Euro Area manufacturing PMI decreased from 47.3 to 45.8, and UK manufacturing PMI decreased from 47.9 to 47.8. In these 3 regions, the threshold value of 50 has not been exceeded yet. They remain in negative territory.