EUR/usd
It cannot escape your notice that the market puts too much pressure on the single currency, even despite the news. Yesterday's GDP statistics for Europe proved to be more than pleasant. France, with its growth by 0.5% in 2Q against the expected 0.1%, impressed a lot. Germany demonstrated an even stronger growth, but its 0.7% q/q proved to be closer to the forecasted 0.6%, and therefore aroused little surprise in the market. We can be glad for Portugal, whose economy grew by 1.1%, albeit this growth had been preceded by ten quarters of decline. With such favourable growth rates in particular countries it wasn't a surprise that the economy of the whole eurozone also performed well. Its growth made 0.3% over the quarter. It is by 0.7% less than in the previous year, but better than the decline by 1.1% in the first quarter. By the way, there is one more example of injustice in the market. Eurostat has significantly raised the first-quarter estimate of the yearly performance, setting it now at 1.5%. However, the markets behaved as if they didn't notice all that info. The French and German statistics caused an upsurge of the euro against the dollar by 30 pips, which were recouped soon after the release of the GDP estimate for the whole region. It seems that only during today's Asian session traders finally took notice of the European statistics and found the Buy button on their panel. Without any reason the pair jumped from 1.3250 to 1.3310 and if in the pound this impulse soon subsided, the single currency keeps trading at 1.33. It's noteworthy that the markets now assess the prospects of the stimulus rollback by the Fed in the near future with greater caution. This is partly a result of James Bullard's statement that before reducing the economic stimulus he'd like to see more signs of its recovery.
GBP/USD
The release of the British employment statistics yesterday was a more interesting event for the markets, judging by the reaction of the currency. The country's employment situation keeps improving. Yesterday's data showed that in July the number of unemployment claims decreased by 29.2K after the decline by 29.4K in June. It didn't help to reduce the unemployment rate, which over three months ending with June ( these data are a month behind the unemployment claims) remained at 7.8%. Yet the employment rate grew by 69K. Yesterday traders were reconsidering their stakes on when unemployment would reach the target 7%, purchasing the sterling. The pair is again above 1.55 and is touching the 200-day MA.
USD/JPY
The monthly economic report, published by the Cabinet, has highlighted signs of improvement in the dynamics and also emphasized that the country is now a step closer to overcoming deflation. The report also has pointed out improvement in the labour market, which in its turn signals about higher business activity and promises growth of the consumer one. This news has aroused demand for the Japanese currency as the markets have realized that the government may take its foot off the gas pedal in implementing reforms. Consequently, usdjpy has dropped from 98.10 to 97.70.
gold
The bombardment of news feeds regarding not very bright prospects of Gold looks somewhat surprising. The facts, highlighted by the leading editions, are a reflection of earlier events ( cut of growth rates, selling by ETF), while already for the fourth week in a row the instrument has been trading sideways, getting farther and farther from the lows of late June. It should be also mentioned that of this period Gold purchases are more typical.
