Market Review – 24/02/2011 20:06 GMT
Euro rises to 3-week high on more hawkish comments fm ECB official
Euro extended recent upmove fm last week’s low of 1.3428 to a fresh three-week high of 1.3822 on Thursday on more hawkish rhetoric fm another ECB official, Axel Weber, following by Yves Mersch n Lorenzo Bini Smaghi. Earlier, although the single currency fell sharply fm Asian high of 1.3785 on cross-selling versus the Japanese yen n Swiss franc, renewed buying at 1.3704 fm Eastern European accounts lifted price n euro eventually climbed to as high as 1.3822 in NY morning b4 retreating.
German Bundesbank chief Axel Weber said on Thursday that the only way for interest rates is up. In sharp contrast to the remarks quoted by Reuters fm St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard, he said that ‘can never say never to QE3 because don’t know how economy will evolve, oil market, Europe remain risks’.
The British pound tumbled on Thursday on active broad-based profit-taking in sterling as the BoE rate hike prospect in coming months due to the current high inflation in U.K. has fully priced in after recent strong rise. Cable tanked fm Asian high of 1.6256 to 1.6143 in European morning n despite staging a moderate recovery later, price then fell further to an intra-day low of 1.6085 in NY morning. Active across selling in sterling also pressured the pound as eur/gbp rose strongly fm 0.8472 to a 3-week high of 0.8566 n gbp/jpy tumbled fm 133.86 to 131.52.
The Swiss franc, a currency with the traditional safe-haven status, rose to a fresh lifetime high of 0.9234 against the dollar on Thursday on safe-haven demands due to the continued political violence in Libya n Middle east.
The Japanese yen also strengthened broadly in tandem with swiss franc in Asia, Europe and U.S., usd/jpy, eur/jpy n aud/jpy, fell sharply fm 82.52 to 81.62, 113.51 to 112.19 n 82.85 to 81.91 respectively.
Data to be released on Friday includes:
Japan National CPI, U.K. Gfk survey, Germany HICP n CPI, U.K. GDP, U.S. GDP, PCE core n University of Michigan consumer confidence survey.