Euro Moves Lower Against Rivals As Stocks Slip

Sponsored Links

The euro moved to the downside against other majors on Thursday in New York as global equities moved lower on light volume, reducing the appeal of riskier currencies.

There is no major economic news expected from the Eurozone today and many traders will be off tomorrow for New Year's Day. Purchasing mananger index data is expected on Monday.

The euro edged lower versus the dollar, moving toward the low end of a recent trading range near 1.4340. The pair has been range-bound this week after the European currency bounced off of a three-month low of 1.4216 last week.

The U.S. Labor Department said that jobless claims fell to 432,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 454,000. The decrease came as a surprise to economists, who had expected jobless claims to edge up to 460,000 from the 452,000 originally reported for the previous week.

The euro dropped against the pound and tested a 3 1/2 month low. The 16-member currency fell to 0.8860, near the nmulti-month low of 0.8832.

UK banks have increased lending in the third quarter, a quarterly survey by the Bank of England showed Thursday. According to the survey, a net balance of lenders reported that they had increased the availability of secured credit to households in the three months to early December 2009. A further slight increase is expected over the next three months.

The euro rallied to a 3 1/2-week high against the yen, moving as high as 133.59. The European currency has been trending higher for a little more than a week.

(Market News Provided by RTTNews)