For only the second time in the 27 month period since the start of the US recession, employers have added jobs. This is the news from the US Labor Department in its monthly payroll report for March released early Friday (April 2) morning.

Crude oil prices continued to gain on Wednesday (March 31) thanks largely to the falling dollar. The price of a barrel of crude oil for May delivery settled at $83.76 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. This was a gain of $1.39 or 1.7 per cent.

Gold prices have bandied about quite a bit in the last two months while maintaining a relatively modest range of less than $90. The high point for gold in the last 60 days was $1,139.60 per ounce at the start of March and the low point was $1,052.25 in early February.

Sparked by continued optimism about the economic situation and enthusiasm surrounding the passing of the massive healthcare system overhaul, the dollar has surged this week against major currencies and commodities.
The dollar has really been driving hard against the Euro thanks to continued instability in many of the leading European Union economies and general uncertainty surrounding the Euro itself. A Euro is currently worth $1.3341. This marks a more than two pip drop in the Euro against the greenback in a little over 24 hours.
The Euro is now at …

Currency speculators have seemed convinced or the last few months that at some point, the Fed is sure to hike interest rates once it is obvious the economy is in good shape. Based on yesterday’s Central Bank rate decision and subsequent announcement, it appears that ‘obvious’ is far from the thinking of the Board members.

During the Asian trading session the Euro hit the early February highs against the US Dollar. This resistance area was when the Greece situation was still a major uncertainty. Many are calling for higher prices on the Euro against the US Dollar, however, there is reasonable resistance around here not only from that high but from early summer lows of 2009.