Euro Mixed In Trading Against Majors
In early European deals on Thursday, the euro showed mixed trading against its major counterparts as investors awaited Euro-zone industrial production report for September.
While the euro declined to a 3-day low against the dollar, it dropped from a 15-day high against the pound. The euro also showed modest weakness against the yen, but it jumped to a 2-day high against the franc.
At 5:00 am ET, the Euro-zone’s statistical agency Eurostat is scheduled to release industrial production data for September. Industrial output is forecast to rise 0.5% month-on-month in September, slower than the 0.9% growth in the previous month. On a yearly basis, production is expected to fall 14.1% compared to the 15.4% drop last month.
Earlier today, the Bank of France reported that France’s current account deficit narrowed in September as the goods trade deficit shrank and the services surplus edged up.
The current account deficit stood at a seasonally adjusted EUR 3.6 billion in September compared to the downwardly revised EUR 4 billion deficit in the previous month. The deficit in goods trade was at EUR 3.6 billion, down from the EUR 4 billion deficit last month. The surplus on services nudged up to EUR 0.9 billion from EUR 0.8 billion, while that on revenues contracted to EUR 1 billion from EUR 1.3 billion.
European shares were flat in early trade today. At 4:21 am ET, the FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares was up 0.05 percent at 1,014.38 points after touching a three-week high in the previous session.
The euro, which closed yesterday’s trading at 1.4984 against the dollar fell to a 3-day low of 1.4928 in early deals on Thursday. If the euro-dollar pair weakens further, it may test support around the 1.468 level.
During early trading on Thursday, the euro slipped to 133.95 against the yen. This may be compared to Wednesday’s closing value of 134.64. The near term support for the euro-yen pair is seen at 133.4.
Data released by Bank of Japan revealed that domestic corporate goods prices declined 6.7% year-over-year during October, after having contracted 7.9% in the previous month. Analysts expected the prices to decline 6.0%. On a monthly basis, prices declined 0.7%, higher than mean expectations of a 0.1% decline, and 0.1% rise in the previous month.
The euro declined against the pound after reaching a 15-day high of 0.9067 at 2:10 am ET Thursday. As of now, the euro-pound pair is worth 0.9027 with 0.895 seen as the next target level. At yesterday’s close, the pair was quoted at 0.9041.
The euro soared to a 2-day high of 1.5114 against the Swiss franc in early deals on Thursday. The next upside target level for the euro-franc pair is seen at 1.513. The pair closed yesterday’s trading at 1.5106.
Looking ahead, the Centre for European Economic Research is slated to issue November’s economic expectations index for Switzerland at 5:00 am ET. Last month, the index stood at 65.
Turning to the U.S., the weekly jobless claims report for the week ended November 07 and the monthly budget statement for October have been slated for release in the New York session.
