Increased Appeal Of The Us Currency

The euro rallied from a four-month low against the dollar on Friday as investors pared bets against the single currency after a more than 3 percent drop this month, but concerns about Greece and Spain were likely to keep it under pressure. Positioning ahead of the weekend meeting of the Group of 8 major industrialized nations and technical support also helped, traders said, as the euro approached its January low of $1.2623. Gains accelerated after a wave of stops were triggered in the euro's grind higher. Despite Friday's rebound, investors preferred the relative safety of the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen as worries about Europe persisted after Moody's cut the credit ratings of 16 Spanish banks late on Thursday. Some traders said investors were wary of placing bets ahead of the ...

With jobs disappointment and growth concerns back on front, traders are running out risk it seems and a major sell-off is looming around the markets after the Easter Holiday. The U.S. dollar is back on a rise against the euro as traders weigh Friday's employment report. The U.S. Department of Labor reported Friday that American payrolls increased by 120 thousand in March, after rising 240 thousand (revised from 227 thousand) - an employment figure that is too below market consensus of 205 thousand. In a listless trade, currencies are little changed Monday as traders are still for the Easter holiday but the U.S. Stock exchange was up today and witnessed a strong selloff wave and more than 1 percent of equity value was flushed amid lack of fundamentals from the U.S. The dollar rose ...

Amid lower-than-usual volumes, with markets in Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Philippine, Europe and the US being closed for Easter, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.5% after data showed rate of China rose faster-than-expected. Chinese data showed that inflation rose in March more-than-expected by 3.6% from 3.2% in February, led by higher food prices, signaling that policy makers might delay further easing of monetary policy. Weighing on sentiment was the slowdown in US jobs growth, as the economy added the fewest employers in five months in March, 120K from 205K expected, raising concerns over the strength of the US economy. As the US jobs data and the Chinese inflation numbers reduced optimism, investors became more cautious and demand for safe haven increased. This ...

Fundamental Analysis EUR "We expect it to go higher, to reach 11 percent by the end of the year" - Raphael Brun-Aguerre, an economist at JP Morgan Euro zone unemployment rose to the highest since 1998, a sign the economy has slipped into recession. Unemployment increased to 10.8 per cent, said the European statistical agency on Monday. USD "We are seeing a broadening in the improvement across the economy" - Millan Mulraine, a senior U.S. strategist at TD Securities U.S. manufacturing growth accelerated in March, the latest evidence the economy is gaining momentum. GBP "UK manufacturing has made a brighter than expected start to 2012" - Rob Dobson, senior economist at Markit The U.K. manufacturing sector expanded at its fastest pace for 10 months in March, Markit data showed on Monday. ...

Fundamental Analysis EUR "There’s been a growing realization that in fact the economic numbers particularly out of the States have been better than expected" - David Miller, a partner at Cheviot Asset Management The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 1.14 per cent to 268.97. Germany’s DAX Index slid 1.39 per cent and France’s CAC 40 Index lost 1.32 per cent. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index tumbled 1.17 per cent to 5,891.41. USD "The housing market continues to recover at a very gradual rate" - Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets U.S. housing starts declined slightly in February, but the biggest increase in building permits in more than three years shows the industry is recovering. Housing starts fell 1.1% to an annual rate of 698,000 last month. GBP "The Bank of England is ...

(Reuters) - The yen stayed on the defensive on Monday with the euro reaching a fresh five-month high against the Japanese currency, while the dollar nursed losses following a setback late last week. The euro rose as high as 110.15 yen at one point on trading platform EBS, its highest level since late October. It later pared its gains and was last changing hands at 109.81 yen, down 0.1 percent from late U.S. trade on Friday. In another sign of the yen's recent weakness, the Australian dollar rose to 88.62 yen, its highest level since May 2011. The Australian dollar last stood at 88.37 yen, up 0.1 percent from late U.S. trade on Friday. The yen's status as the currency of choice in funding carry trades was cemented last month after a surprise easing by the Bank of Japan. Additionally, ...

(Reuters) - Be careful what you wish for, Japan. Long preoccupied with the strength of the yen and its drag on the anemic economy, policymakers in Tokyo are now being served a warning about the risks posed by the currency's retreat. The yen's decline from record highs in recent months coincides with a major shift in the country's energy balance, a change that threatens to hasten its path to a perennial trade deficit. A record current account deficit in January reported on Thursday was probably a blip, a result of seasonal and one-off factors. But it serves as a reminder that the former export powerhouse may end up in the red and will need to import capital to fund its snowballing debt much sooner than earlier thought. The fear is that foreign investors would demand better returns, ...

The dollar leaped against the euro and yen on Wednesday as a confluence of factors, ranging from a European Central Bank cash infusion to diminished expectations of another asset-buying binge by the Federal Reserve, raised its appeal. An array of positive U.S. data, which typically increases risk appetite, favored the greenback against the euro as it highlighted a growing disparity between the economies on both sides of the Atlantic. The euro accelerated losses against the dollar to hit a near one-week low and the greenback rose sharply against the yen after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told a congressional panel the country's unemployment rate had fallen faster than expected. Bernanke offered a tempered view of the U.S. economy and stopped short of signaling further Fed bond purchases, ...

U.S. stocks retreated from four-year highs on Monday, joining lower European markets, on fresh worries about euro zone finances and fear that high oil prices could flatten the fragile global economic recovery. Crude oil fell for the first time in a week, but was not far from last week's 10-month highs above $125 a barrel in London and 9-month peaks near $110 in New York. "In the absence of a lot of news you're seeing profit taking to start the day," said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in New York, which oversees about $2 billion. "It wouldn't be healthy if there wasn't some profit taking." The flow of money out of stocks and commodities into currencies helped push up the dollar. Investors lent support to the greenback after it had fallen ...