Euro was boosted to a new two-month high against the dollar after Greek political leaders, after many delays,finally agreed on a package of austerity measures that were required to secure a second bailout package. Talks with private creditors were concluded in time to be presented at the Eurogroup meeting in Brussels tonight where euro zone finance ministers will approve the plan in order for the 130 billion bailout package to be released by the ECB. Also the plan needs now to be voted on in the Greek parliament and ratified. Any delay on this will again make markets nervous.
In the meantime, market sentiment is high from the news. Also adding to risk appetite was the ECB President’s comments at a news conference after announcing key rates were held unchanged at 1 percent. ECB chief, Mario Draghi announced an easing of collateral rules for the central bank’s liquidity operations, known as LTRO. (long-term refinancing operation). This measure gives much more assurance to the euro zone as they aim to avert a potentially dangerous credit crunch. The first of such measures were introduced on December last year, which resulting in calming financial market turmoil.
EURUSD hit a high of 1.3319 before easing on profit-taking. EURJPY rose to 103.27 from 102.12, the highest level for 2012 so far.
Sterling gained against the dollar after the Bank of England issued a more upbeat outlook on the UK economy after announcing interest rates remained unchanged at 0.5 percent. The bank is also expecting inflation to undershoot its 2 percent target in the medium term without more monetary support. Declining inflation is typically good for a currency and no more quantitative easing will give support to the pound. GPUSD hit a high of 1.5882, rising from a low of 1.5791.
The Canadian dollar strengthened against its US counterpart, to the highest level this year, and the highest since October 31 of last year. The greenback fell, with USDCAD falling to 0.9923. Risk appetite helped lift the commodity-linked currency , which was also buoyed by firmer crude oil prices, a key Canadian export.
Against the Japanese yen, the US dollar extended gains to a three-week high of ¥77.71, from ¥76.99. Dollar was lifted after U.S. weekly jobless claims dipped. Americans filing initial claims for jobless benefits dropped by 15,000 last week to 358,000.
By clicking “Continue”, you agree to the default cookie settings on our website.
Trading Point uses cookies to ensure that we provide you with the best experience while visiting our website. Some of the cookies are needed to provide essential features, such as login sessions, and cannot be disabled. Other cookies help us improve our website’s performance and your experience through personalising content, providing social media features and analysing our traffic. Such cookies may also include third-party cookies, which might track your use of our website. You may change your cookie settings at any time.
Read more, or change your cookie settings.
What are Cookies?
Cookies are small data files. When you visit a website, the website sends the cookie to your computer. Your computer stores it in a file located inside your web browser.
Cookies do not transfer viruses or malware to your computer. Because the data in a cookie does not change when it travels back and forth, it has no way to affect how your computer runs, but they act more like logs (i.e. they record user activity and remember stateful information) and they get updated every time you visit a website.
We may obtain information about you by accessing cookies, sent by our website. Different types of cookies keep track of different activities. For example, session cookies are used only when a person is actively navigating a website. Once you leave the website, the session cookie disappears.
Why are cookies useful?
We use functional cookies to analyse how visitors use our website, as well as track and improve our website’s performance and function. This allows us to provide a high-quality customer experience by quickly identifying and fixing any issues that may arise. For example, we might use cookies to keep track of which website pages are most popular and which method of linking between website pages is most effective. The latter also helps us to track if you were referred to us by another website and improve our future advertising campaigns.
Another use of cookies is to store your log in sessions, meaning that when you log in to the Members Area to deposit funds, a "session cookie" is set so that the website remembers that you have already logged in. If the website did not set this cookie, you will be asked for your login and password on each new page as you progress through the funding process.
In addition, functional cookies, for example, are used to allow us to remember your preferences and identify you as a user, ensure your information is secure and operate more reliably and efficiently. For example, cookies save you the trouble of typing in your username every time you access our trading platform, and recall your preferences, such as which language you wish to see when you log in.
Here is an overview of some of the functions our cookies provide us with:
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google"). Google Analytics uses analytical cookies placed on your computer, to help the website analyze a user's use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) may be transmitted to and stored by Google on their servers. Google may use this information to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity and to provide other services related to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties, where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on behalf of Google. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held. By using this website, you give your consent to Google to process data about you in the manner and for the purposes set out above.
Change Settings
Please select which types of cookies you want to be stored on your device.
We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.
Read more or change your cookie settings.