On Friday the euro strengthened by 0.18 cents against the dollar to close the day's trading at the 1.2926 level in what was a volatile day's trading. During the day the dollar had swung between gains and losses following performance on equity markets, but it closed down as stocks posted weekly gains and improved risk appetite saw the dollar's safe haven appeal eroded. During the session it had been announced that the rate at which eurozone retail sales were falling had decreased, -2.2% in the year to January as opposed to -2.4% in December. In the US, the rate at which import prices was falling also slowed, the trade balance was shown to have shrunk from $39.90 billion to $36.03 billion and the Reuters/Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index showed improvement. All these announcements had the effect of improving sentiment amongst investors and as risk appetite increased, the euro became a more attractive opportunity.
In today’s trading the euro has strengthened against the dollar with investors expecting that the US government will announce initiatives to buy long term Treasuries to help keep interest rates down. In the coming week the US Treasury will share more information on how bad assets will be taken off banks’ books with public-private partnerships. Later today the EU will release the Consumer Price Index to measure inflation and purchasing tendencies, as well as employment change data. In the US, industrial production, the New York State Empire State Manufacturing Index, and Treasury International Capital reports are released.
No comments:
Post a Comment