Dollar gains across board, Euro at fresh 9 year low
The Euro continued its decline today, falling to a new 9 year low of 1.1817 against the Dollar as fears for the Eurozone economy were kindled by data which showed the euro zone prices declining for the first time since 2009. The Eurozone consumer prices dropped lowed than expected to 0.2% per annum in December, further to the much cheaper energy we have recently seen. The recent pile on of bad news must surely put enormous pressure on the European Central Bank to take immediate measures to revive the EU economy.
Eurozone prices, excluding seasonal energy and unprocessed food, remained steady at 0.7% in December, while prices with the exclusion of Alcohol and tobacco rose to 0.8%. The initial news saw some support of the Euro as it re-cooped some losses, however this was short lived and saw the EURUSD drop to a new 9 year low. In addition, the positive news from Germany of a reduced unemployment change of -27K, some 11K less than the expected value of -16K, did not manage to suede investors in purchasing the Euro.
The Greenback rose to a 9 year high against a basket of currencies, reaching a level of 92.02. FOMC minutes, due to be released at 19:00 GMT, should see some choppy/ volatile movement in the USD. The non-farm payrolls are scheduled for later in the week, which will be very crucial this month in giving a further push or pull to the Dollar against a basket of currencies and very importantly against the Euro.
Commodities continued their decline, with Brent reaching below the crucial $50 level, marking a 5.5 year low. The much reliant Canadian Dollar dropped also to a 52.5 year low to 1.1870 against the Dollar while the Norway crown headed towards a 12.5 year low
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