The Euro inched further up against the US Dollar in the European session based on optimistic market sentiment and improved risk appetite after positive Chinese economic data eased growth concerns from the global powerhouse. Euro is a higher yielding currency versus the lower yielding Dollar, so that lifted its demand. EURUSD rose to 1.4471. Gains were capped there due to lingering concerns about the Greek debt issue as well as Dollar rising after good US retail sales and PPI data were released before the end of the European session.
Sterling weakened briefly against the Dollar and the Euro after UK inflation data came in as forecast, giving investors little reason to believe there will be a rate hike by the Bank of England in the near future Cable soon rebounded to rise all the way until the end of the session. GBPUSD hit highs of 1.6440 pre-data then rebounded to 10.6419 by the end of European trading.
The Swiss franc was outperforming the Dollar recently due to risk appetite in the safe haven currency. However, all that changed drastically after the greenback jumped as much as 65 pips after US retail sales and PPI data boosted USDCHF to highs of 0.8451 from pre-news level of 0.8386.
The Dollar surged against the Japanese Yen after news of the jump US producer prices, making USDJPY to hit 80.56 before the end of the European trading session from lows of 80.14, marking a 42 pip gain. The month over month PPI rose much better than expected and year over year PPI was stable. Meanwhile, retail sales data also gave a better than expected reading.
| EURUSD | GBPUSD | EURGBP | USDCHF | USDJPY | |
| OPEN
(07:00 GMT) |
1.4430 | 1.6410 | 0.8791 | 0.8378 | 80.28 |
| DAY’S HIGH | 1.4471 | 1.6440 | 0.8825 | 0.8451 | 80.56 |
| DAY’S LOW | 1.4414 | 1.6376 | 0.8785 | 0.8352 | 80.12 |
| CLOSE
(14:00 GMT) |
1.4440 | 1.6404 | 0.8802 | 0.8442 | 80.50 |
Note: Daylight Saving Time in effect for GMT
