Gold drops to minimums of $1710.
Asian and European trading sessions:
Euro: The Euro slightly recovered against the U.S. dollar after falling to a new 5 – week low at $1.3422 in early Asian trading. Furthermore, the Euro was under pressure against the major currencies because of the results of the Spanish and French government bonds’ auctions. The EUR /USD pair traded today in the $1.3422 – $1.3537 range.
US Dollar: During the first half of the Asian trading session the US Dollar fell against the majority of 16 basic currencies. The main reason for that was the expected speech of William Dudley, who was the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
British Pound: After the publication of the report on retail sales in the UK, the British Pound showed an increase against the US dollar and strengthened to $1.5800 area. The retail sales grew in October and exceeded the expectations (+0.9 % y/y vs. -0.2 %).
Oil: The cost of the December futures on U.S. light crude oil, WTI in trading in New York fell to 100.01 dollars per barrel.
Gold: The Gold futures got hammered today along with a sharp fall in demand for commodity and stocks.The December Gold futures dropped to 1720 dollars per troy ounce, marking the low of the day at $1710 area.
American trading session:
Support for positive trading direction for the US dollar was received from the statement of the Fitch agency , which says that the ratings of U.S. banks that have large investments in Europe could be lowered. Other news which engaged the “greenback” buyers were strong macro-economic data on the labor market and U.S. housing. The number of initial claims fell last week by 5 thousands.
Australian Dollar: The Australian dollar reached parity with the US dollar for the first time since September and even went to $0.9975 level amid the drop of investors ‘ interest in risky assets.