EUR/usd

Within the last 24 hours the single currency has left the zone of 1.31. Late on Thursday evening eurusd was as low as 1.3050. Those, who stick to technical analysis in their trading, suspect that the pair can form a double top, and this is not without reason. On Wednesday the euro tried to break above the previous highs, however the bears repulsed the attack. In the long term, we believe, the single currency is in no danger, but still we shouldn't expect that growth will be without stops and retracements. One of such, apparently, was yesterday. Though the bulls felt nervous yesterday, the impulse was still coming from the stock exchanges, where Google showed surprisingly poor results for the third quarter. It was one of the factors which triggered the wave of profit-taking. Anyway, the uptrend in the single currency is still strong and the stock exchanges have a chance to close out the week positive. The news coming from the EU summit speaks about the further advance to a single banking supervisor, which as promised will be established already next year. The exact date is, of course, not set yet, but it is quite unlikely that it will be January, as was ambitiously stated before. Now there isn't so much fuss about the recovery of the labour market in the USA as before. The weekly unemployment claims proved to be at 388K after 342K a week ago. Altogether these factors keep the 4-week MA at the July levels. Yet we shouldn't forget about the increase in consumer spending, growth of manufacturing PMI and impressive performance of the housing market. Yesterday we saw further evidence of better economic activity -that is the Philly Fed index, which proved to be positive for the first time over the last six months.

GBP/USD

The British pound was strongly affected by the agitation in the stock exchanges. At night it tumbled down by 80 pips within one hour and didn't manage to recoup the losses later. Now we can see another wave of sales, which has driven the pair to 1.6030. As we expected, the sterling looks weaker than most other currencies, depreciating against the euro as well. Now trading is held at 0.8140, close to the levels which were last seen only in May. Today the public sector net borrowing statistics will be a major focus of traders' interest, yet we shouldn't expect any strong reaction to the release.

USD/JPY

USD/JPY has stopped growing, thinking to consolidate at 79.30. Yesterday we could observe attacks of the bears, which drew long lower shadows in the candlesticks, but didn't manage to reverse the general market trend: the yen is purchased on the dips and this rally has been in place for more than a week. The nearest high is at 79.65 and yesterday the markets almost reached the level, hitting 79.46. Have the dreams of those, who for many years persistently and unsuccessfully stuck to the bullish position in the pair, finally come true? 

AUD/USD

Two days ago the Australian dollar confidently crossed the 200-day MA, having grown by over 50 pips that day. However, yesterday AUD/USD closed out the day negative. The decline continues today. From the peak of 1.0410 the pair retraced back to 1.0350. It is surprising that, though being taken positively by the markets, the news from China shouldn't give any support to the purchases in the pair.