The euro has been hit hard overnight and in early Friday morning New York currency trade following news that the European Union members reached a deal to help prevent future debt problems in the region.

Sovereign debt risks and fiscal concerns continue to dictate the underlying sentiment in Forex markets at present. Moody’s rating agency threatened to down grade Spain’s credit rating overnight weighing heavily on Euro price movement and overall investor sentiment. The euro has fallen back towards the $1.33 price level against the USD and retraced 70 pips against the GBP which now currently holds above 1.18 in early European trade. The Euro decline from yesterday highs at 1.3000 has extended below 1.2800, with the Common currency sold across the board on renewed …

National average mortgage rates are on the rise in the United States as jobless claims are improving and the economy appears to be improving.

Australia’s central bank kept its key cash rate unchanged at 4.75% after its meeting finished overnight. The announcement was widely expected following a pre-emptive hike last month. Markets now expect the central bank to leave rates on hold for a few months to come. In making its statement, the RBA referred to the volatility in markets as a result of concerns about the creditworthiness of a number of European governments. It also focused on the fact that the Chinese and Indian economies have continued to grow strongly, while more developed …

Currency markets were saw mixed price movement yesterday with the Euro standing out as the key performer during the US trading session. Retracing back from a low of 1.1995 the GBP/EUR saw a corrective move of over 2 points with an overnight low at 1.1787 (support) – slighty up on the day today however price movement remains quite stable at present. It briefly broke through the $1.32 level versus the dollar trading back from a low of under 1.30 – dropping over 10 points in over 2 weeks. It then …

As observed for several weeks, the underlying forces driving currency markets at present are biased toward US Dollar strength, Euro weakness and overall consolidation within the commodity linked currencies with underlying sentiment driving price action in the markets. These overall compounding factors have further encouraged profit-taking, boosting the safety-linked US currency, and alternative safe haven currencies such as the Japanese Yen and CHF.
The British Pound appears firmly tied to underlying trends in sentiment at present, with little by way of economic data to upset the relationship with speculators …

The US dollar is up sharply in early Wednesday (November 24th) morning currency trade following a strong unemployment report. The latest weekly report from the Labor Department for the week ending November 20th showed a seasonally adjusted total of 407,000 unemployment claims.
This much larger than expected drop of 34,000 claims from the previous week puts unemployment claims at their lowest weekly total since July of 2008.
Many analysts and investors are taking the news as a positive sign for the economy. However, some are quick to point out that the holiday …