Positive Euro-zone statistics supported the euro.
Asian and European trading sessions:
Euro: During the Asian trading session the Euro traded flat against US Dollar. The EUR/USD couple stuck around the $1.3005 area. The European trading session, though, showed us the outgrowth of the Euro currency against its major competitors. There were reasons for that :first, the report on the index of business climate IFO, whose value for December came in at 107.2 while the forecast 106,second,the fact of approving by IMF allocation of 2.9 billion euro for Portugal. Finally, the euro was supported by the results of the auction on bonds of Spain, which in attracted E 5.64 billion. The EUR/USD pair grew to a its weekly high and hitting the $1.3088 area during the European session.
British Pound: The British currency had the same positive trading day as the Euro. The GBP/USD pair confirmed its bullish trend by growing to $1.5648 level during the European session.
Australian Dollar: The Australian dollar traded mostly at its highs during the Asian session today, receiving support from the protocols of the last meeting of the Board of the Central Bank of Australia.
American trading session:
Japanese Yen: After the released information which showed that the country’s Ministry of Finance planned to increase the limit for funding of foreign exchange interventions to 195 trillion yen, the yen weakened against its most major rivals. This increase was the first increase since September 30.
US Dollar: It was a decidedly negative day for the Greenback. The U.S. currency dropped against all 16 most traded currencies on the background of raising the stock markets, which probably started their New Year rally, and decreasing demand for safe –haven assets. The other good news which came from the United States Department of Commerce today, revealed that the number of Housing Starts jumped in November to 681 thousands versus forecasted 627 thousand.
Oil: The WTI prices strengthened today to its daily high at 97.44 and closed at $96.91 per barrel.
Gold: The gold prices continued their previously started bullish trend recovering from the last week big drops and closed today at $1614.82 value.