Forex Europe Review – Swiss Franc hits record high against US Dollar

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The Euro extended gains against a weaker US Dollar today. After the release of a US jobs report that showed weak growth in the private non-farm employment sector, the Single Currency was given the opportunity to surge against the plunging greenback. EURUSD soared 26 pips within five minutes from 1.4405 to 1.4431. The Euro had already reached a four-week earlier in the session and in the past few days has been rising on optimism that a deal will soon be reached on a Greek bailout package by the EU-IMF-ECB.

Sterling was driven down by disappointing manufacturing PMI data. The index gave the worst reading since September 2009 indicating that manufacturing is no longer expanding but has reached stagnation. This confirmed speculation the Bank of England will not likely raise interest this year. GBPUSD was given a slight break from its decline after weak US employment data caused the Dollar to drop, but the Pound’s rise against the greenback was short-lived and continued to drop after. From session highs of 1.6494, Cable fell down to lows of 1.6382.

The Swiss Franc hit a fresh all time high against the US Dollar in the European session. Additional weak US economic data today put further pressure on an already weak greenback, whereas the Swiss Franc was already lifted this morning by optimistic data. Swiss retail sales increased more than expected in May to 7.5 percent versus economist predictions of a mere 1.9 percent, and up from April’s decline of 0.2 percent. Swiss PMI also increased unexpectedly. USDCHF dropped from 0.8541 to 0.8425.

A brief rally between the Yen and the US Dollar soon ended after the release of US jobs data led the Dollar to plunge. USDJPY fell from 81.25 to 80.88 within five minutes, then continued to a session low of 80.80. Further losses were halted supported by the fact that the Japanese Yen is at risk after being battered in the past couple of days based on Moody’s report that said it was considering downgrading Japan’s credit outlook.