With the US debt limit extended, the world’s largest economy reopened and the weekend approaching, the Euro was heading for a five-day gain against its North American counterpart.
The EUR/USD pairing hit its highest level since February yesterday was able to maintain its bullish relationship with the ‘Greenback’ overnight as the 16 day federal shutdown lowered the odds of the Federal Reserve tapering stimulus before the close of the year, reducing the appeal of the US Dollar in the process.
As chief economist Besa Deda commented; ‘The debt ceiling issue has been pushed out to Friday, so the very earliest you’d be looking at Fed tapering is March. There’s been a recovery of risk appetite and that’s seen flows into riskier assets and away from the US Dollar.’
The Euro/US Dollar pairing is currently trading in the region of 1.3674
Higher-risk assets like the Euro were also supported overnight as China’s economy was shown to have expanded by more than expected in the third quarter. The seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter growth of 2.2 per cent was better than the 2.1 per cent expected and the best result this year. Second quarter expansion was also upwardly revised to 1.9 per cent.
On the year, China’s economy expanded by 7.8 per cent in the third quarter, up from 7.5 per cent in the second and in line with economists’ expectations.
As China is one of the Eurozone’s main trading partners this result was positive for the 17-nation currency bloc and lent the Euro support. However, the Euro did retain recent declines against the Pound.
Yesterday the EUR/GBP pairing dipped as UK retail sales figures beat expectations, and with little in the way of European news on the cards today further movement may be restricted.
Eurozone data to look out for next week includes the region’s consumer confidence index, German and Eurozone manufacturing/services PMI reports and the German IFO current assessment survey.
Euro (EUR) Exchange Rates
As of 09:10
The Euro/US Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.3674 >
The Euro/Pound Sterling Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.8452 <
The Euro/Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.4192 <
The Euro/ New Zealand Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.6151 >
The Euro/ Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.4072 >
