All Blog Entries

EUR/USD

The Euro remained above 1.35 in Europe on Thursday, although rallies were encountering significant selling which initially dampened headway.

The US jobless claims data was close to expectations with a decline to 439,000 in the latest reporting week from a revised 445,000 the previous week and the 4-week moving average declined to the lowest level since September 2008.

The ISM index for manufacturing rose to 59.6 from 56.5 the previous month, maintaining optimism surrounding the manufacturing sector. The employment component in the index was also comfortably above the 50 level. In contrast, there was a further monthly decline in construction spending which fell to the lowest level since 1992. ...

EUR/USD

The Euro pushed to highs above 1.3520 against the dollar in Asian trading on Tuesday, but was unable to sustain the gains during the day.

The latest house-price data recorded a small seasonally-adjusted increase for January with the lowest annual decline for three years. The US consumer confidence data was slightly stronger than expected with an increase to 52.5 for March from a revised 46.4 the previous month. There was an improvement in optimism surrounding the labour market which will help maintain some degree of optimism over the economy. There will also be expectations of a robust reading for the March employment report due for release on Friday which should support confidence.

Before ...

EUR/USD

The Euro jumped higher in Asian trading on Monday, due in part to to a covering of short positions, before retreating to the 1.3440 region in early Europe. The latest IMM data continued to record a near-record number of short Euro positions, maintaining the possibility of a squeeze on positions.

Provisionally, German consumer prices rose 0.5% in March to give a 1.1% annual increase, in contrast to an expected 0.3% monthly increase. The higher than expected figure could raise some unease within the ECB which could provide some degree of Sterling support.

Following the support deal agreed last week, immediate fears surrounding the Greek debt situation eased. The Greek government also launched ...

EUR/USD

ECB President Trichet took a more positive tone towards the Greek financial-support package on Friday which helped push the Euro back to the 1.3340 region in early European trading.

There was still a high degree of uncertainty over the Greek situation and there was still considerable caution over the outlook given the medium-term difficulties. Markets remained sceptical that there would be a durable solution and there was still unease that debt and rating problems would spread to other countries such as Spain.

The final fourth-quarter GDP estimate was revised down to an annualised rate of 5.6% from 5.9%. The University of Michigan consumer confidence index was revised to 73.6 from the original ...