Although the US Dollar strengthened against several of its major rivals as US non-farm payrolls data showed a stronger-than-forecast employment increase, the Euro was still trading above a 2-year high against the ‘Greenback’.
The Euro was enjoying a bullish relationship with the majority of its most traded currency counterparts as yesterday’s European Central Bank announcement (which upwardly revised growth forecasts and left interest rates unchanged) bolstered the asset.
As foreign-exchange strategist Peter Kinsella notes; ‘It’s clear from what the ECB said yesterday that rates are on hold and they’re not going to take any more expansionary measures. That, to me, says that the only thing that’s going to hold back the Euro from here would be valuation concerns. I don’t see anything in the way of gains toward $1.40.’
During European trading the Euro was boosted further by the news that German industrial output increased by 0.8 per cent in January following a positively revised gain of 0.1 per cent in December.
The surprisingly upbeat US initial jobless claims figure published on Thursday led some investors to bet that today’s US non-farm payrolls report would surprise to the upside, and they were proven right.
The US economy was shown to have added 175,000 positions last month instead of the 149,000 expected.
The report supports the case for the Federal Reserve sticking with its current policy of slowly tapering stimulus in the months ahead.
The EUR/USD pairing is likely to hold onto gains over the weekend.
After a day of little Pound movement, the EUR/GBP pairing also closes the week stronger than it began.
Next week the Eurozone and US data to focus on includes the Eurozone’s Sentix investor confidence measure, German trade balance/inflation figures, a Eurozone industrial production report, the US monthly budget statement and advance US retail sales figures.
The US University of Michigan confidence report, due out on Friday, may also inspire EUR/USD movement.
Euro (EUR) Exchange Rates
[table width=”100%” colwidth=”50|50|50|50|50″ colalign=”left|left|left|left|left”]
Currency, ,Currency,Rate ,
Euro,
,US Dollar,1.3866,
Euro,,British Pound,0.8290,
Euro,,Australian Dollar,1.5259,
Euro,,New Zealand Dollar,1.6412,
Euro,,Canadian Dollar,1.5372,
[/table]
