Market Review – 25/06/2010 21:39 GMTEuro rebounds strongly as U.S. stocks and commodities advanceEuro pared its initial losses and rose on Friday as gains in U.S. stocks and crude oil boosted risk appetite while commodity-linked currencies also advanced against the dollar. Euro briefly rose to 1.2352 in European morning but the single currency tumbled to 1.2254 in European mid-day. The pair, however, managed to rebound from there and despite euro’s retreat to 1.2381 after the weaker-than-expected U.S. GDP data, the single currency later rallied to an intra-day high of 1.2396 in NY mid-day on recovery in U.S. stocks and crude oil. S&P 500 index ended the day up by 0.29% while NASDAQ also closed up by 0.27%. Cross-buying in euro also lifted price as eur/jpy jumped from 109.59 to 110.90 while eur/chf rebounded strongly from its fresh record low of 1.3456 to 1.3610.
Although the greenback bounced from 89.42 to 89.78 against the Japanese yen, the pair retreated from there and resumed recent decline to as low as 89.21 in NY morning after the release of U.S. GDP data, which showed gross domestic economic growth in the first quarter was slower than previously estimated due to business and consumer spending cuts. U.S. final Q1 GDP rose by 2.7 versus economists’ forecast of 3.0.
In other news, U.S. University of Michigan consumer sentiment came in at 76.0, the highest since Jan. 2008.
The British pound went through a roller coaster day. Despite edging higher to 1.4974 at European opening, price tumbled to an intra-day low of 1.4855 in thin trading conditions ahead of weekend’s G20 summit. However, cable rebounded from there on short-covering and later rallied to 1.5079 in late NY session.
Commodities rose on Friday due to dollar’s broad-based weakness and spot gold rose from 1239.60 to 1257.70 while U.S. crude futures rose by $2.35 to $78.86 per barrel, the highest level in seven weeks. Aud/usd also rose to 0.8758 from 0.8596 while nzd/usd jumped to 0.7158 from 0.6995 and usd/cad dropped from 1.0444 to 1.0340.
Investors waited and focused on the G20 Summit over the weekend. Rich countries would figure out how to catch up on their missed aid promises and find new ways to help the world’s poorest nations when their own budgets should be squeezed.
Economic data to be released next week include: Japan Retail sales , Germany CPI , U.S. PCE index, Personal income, Personal spending , Midwest manufacturing on Monday, Japan Household spending , Unemployment rate , Industrial prod’n , EU Business climate, Economic sentiment , Consumer Confidence , Canada PPI , U.S. Consumer confidence on Tuesday, Japan Manufacturing PMI , Construction orders , Housing starts , Germany Unemployment rate, U.K. GDP , Current Account, EU HICP , Swiss KOF indicator, U.S. ADP employment, Canada GDP on Wednesday, Japan Tankan capex , Tankan big manufacturing , Swiss PMI, Germany Manufacturing PMI , U.K. Manufacturing PMI , U.S. Jobless claims, ISM manufacturing, Pending home sales, (Canadian market holiday) on Thursday , EU PPI , Employment , U.S. Avg. hourly earnings , Non-farm payrolls ,Factory orders on Friday.
