Forex

The Euro came back to highs of $1.3400 against the U.S. dollar on positive economic statistics from Europe and U.S.

Asian and European trading sessions:

Euro: During the Asian session the euro tried to recover after a two-day decline against its rivals amid increased uncertainty on the markets. The EUR / USD pair was trading around the level of $ 1.3300. The successful results of Spanish auction and expressed hopes by Van Rompuy about the growth in 2013 offset the negative of weak data on the construction industry. In details, the Ministry of Finance of Spain reported that the yield of 3-year notes dropped today to 2.713 % from previous 3.358 %, and the yield of 5 -year notes to 3.770 % from 3.988 %. The negative came after the release of the results volumes of construction with the seasonal adjustment which decreased by 4.7% in November on yearly bases, after falling revised 3.3% in October. The construction of dwellings fell by 5.3%, and the civil engineering fell by 3.3%. However, the positive results of U.S. and European corporates’ profits supported the single currency. The EUR / USD pair updated its session high moving to $ 1.3375 area during the European session.

Japanese Yen: During the Asian session the USD / JPY pair was held under slight pressure  in response to concerns that the outcome of the January meeting of the Bank of Japan, which will take place next week, would betray the expectations of many investors. On the next following session the currency started to decline against its counterparts amid comments of the Minister of Economy of Japan Mr. Amari who said the yen will continue its adjustement after the excessive growth and his previous comments had been incorrectly interpreted. During the European session the pair rose to a new intraday high of Y89.55.

Australian dollar: In December the Employment Change in Australia has decreased by 5.5K as it was shown by the government data released today. The Australian dollar reacted negatively falling against all major currencies due to the economists expected to see the see growth of 4K.

American trading session:

U.S. Dollar: The dollar regained some of its earlier losses after released data which showed that thee Housing Starts in the U.S. grew by 12.1 % last month, the result beat expectations of analysts. In addition, another report showed that the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to 335K thus confirmed the lowest level since January 2008.

Gold: The gold traded vigorously this session demonstrating strong downward move caused by the publication of data on the U.S. Housing starts and Initial Job Claims, the positive result of which increased the likelihood that the Federal Reserve may stop keeping adaptive monetary policy. Then, after the release of the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index showed decrease in January to -5.8 from 8.1 the gold prices grew to the new weekly high of $ 1696.8.

Oil: The February futures price of WTI type of Oil grew by 1.7 % to the level of $96.03 on the New York Mercantile Exchange due to the positive results of the released today economic statistics from U.S.