The euro traded as high as $1.3038 earlier Wednesday (September 15) and currently sits at $1.3011 after upbeat US data this week has cause some speculators to move away from the dollar and into more high risk investments.

Separate reports Tuesday showed that US retail sales improved in August and businesses are building up inventories. This demonstrates more confidence on the part of both consumers and companies in the economy.

Some analysts are pointing to a recent trend that the euro-dollar moves higher on positive US data. This indicates a correlation between more risky types of investing and the euro positive – dollar negative sentiment.

The most logical explanation on the dollar’s decline is that investors sense a move to raise interest rates could be coming more quickly if these positive economic indicators continue to show up.

The euro shot up from just over $1.28 Tuesday morning following the economic data reports, to regain the $1.30 level for the first time in over a month.

Range traders with insight have been able to take some profits from the euro-dollar in the last several weeks. Since trading near $1.29 in mid-August, the pair has created several up and down waves of around two pips each for traders that observed near-term support and resistance levels in their strategies.

In other significant currency trading news, the yen reached a new 15-year high against the dollar Wednesday morning before a significant bounce by the greenback. One dollar was as low as 82.97 early in the day but has since pushed to 85.66 yen.

Currency markets become less worried about possible intervention in the dollar-yen when Ichiro Ozawa failed in his party leadership challenge of Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan. The immediate market reaction drove the dollar to its new low mark before bargain buying kicked in and momentum carried the dollar higher.