European Session – euro retreats on record unemployment before ECB; strong US ADP
January 8, 2014 2:42 pm
The euro found itself on the back foot during today’s European session, losing 0.24% against the dollar to drop below 1.36 at 1.3594.
The euro also gave back all the gains it made against the yen during the Asian session, falling 0.38% to 104.78.
The euro’s weakness came ahead of the ECB meeting on Thursday. In economic statistics, Eurozone unemployment for November came in line with expectations at 12.1%. This could mean that Eurozone unemployment has plateaued for past 6 months at this record high level. September’s unemployment estimate of 12.2% was revised down to 12.1%.
Another negative piece of news in the Eurozone unemployment data was that Italy’s jobless rate beat expectations to reach 12.7%; the highest in 37 years.
There were more positive news on Eurozone retail sales for November however. They jumped by 1.4% month-on-month to register a year-on-year increase of 1.6%. German industrial orders for November came in strong at 2.1% versus 1.5% expected.
The dollar’s move higher followed a substantially better-than-expected December ADP national employment number of 238 thousand payrolls, which created expectations that Friday’s employment report could also come in higher than the 200 thousand or so number expected. On the aftermath of the ADP data, the euro dropped to a 1-month low against the dollar at 1.3566 but it quickly recovered to limit its losses.
The dollar failed to hold against the Japanese yen and dropped 0.12% during the session to trade at 104.78. The greenback appeared to have some trouble holding above the 105 level and the lack of follow-through after yesterday’s move higher in stocks appeared to help the yen.
The pound rose against the dollar, gaining 0.14% to 1.6432. The pound is not far from its recent more than 2-year high against the dollar of 1.6592.
The market was looking forward to the release of the Fed meeting minutes later on in the session, to look at clues at how tapering and forward guidance were decided at the crucial meeting around 3 weeks ago.
The euro found itself on the back foot during today’s European session, losing 0.24% against the dollar to drop below 1.36 at 1.3594.
The euro also gave back all the gains it made against the yen during the Asian session, falling 0.38% to 104.78.
The euro’s weakness came ahead of the ECB meeting on Thursday. In economic statistics, Eurozone unemployment for November came in line with expectations at 12.1%. This could mean that Eurozone unemployment has plateaued for past 6 months at this record high level. September’s unemployment estimate of 12.2% was revised down to 12.1%.
Another negative piece of news in the Eurozone unemployment data was that Italy’s jobless rate beat expectations to reach 12.7%; the highest in 37 years.
There were more positive news on Eurozone retail sales for November however. They jumped by 1.4% month-on-month to register a year-on-year increase of 1.6%. German industrial orders for November came in strong at 2.1% versus 1.5% expected.
The dollar’s move higher followed a substantially better-than-expected December ADP national employment number of 238 thousand payrolls, which created expectations that Friday’s employment report could also come in higher than the 200 thousand or so number expected. On the aftermath of the ADP data, the euro dropped to a 1-month low against the dollar at 1.3566 but it quickly recovered to limit its losses.
The dollar failed to hold against the Japanese yen and dropped 0.12% during the session to trade at 104.78. The greenback appeared to have some trouble holding above the 105 level and the lack of follow-through after yesterday’s move higher in stocks appeared to help the yen.
The pound rose against the dollar, gaining 0.14% to 1.6432. The pound is not far from its recent more than 2-year high against the dollar of 1.6592.
The market was looking forward to the release of the Fed meeting minutes later on in the session, to look at clues at how tapering and forward guidance were decided at the crucial meeting around 3 weeks ago.
Related Posts: