EUR/usd
The first trading session of December was marked with heavy pressure of the dollar. The attempts of the single currency to consolidate above 1.36 stumbled over selling pressure. It's remarkable that the news coming from the eurozone was not bad. The final releases for some countries and the single estimate for others either exceeded the expectations or met the forecasts. Spain was a small exception – its manufacturing sector shrank unexpectedly (the index fell below 50 to 48). Anyway, as earlier the poor EU statistics didn't prevent the single currency from growing, so yesterday the relatively favourable data didn't interfere with the decline. The pair dropped from 1.3615 to 1.3530, where it found a support. Probably, yesterday's movement was exactly that correction which had been boiling up for long and hadn't occurred on Friday due to absence of traders in the markets. If so, the pair will easily return above 1.3600. It is good that today there won't be any important news releases on Europe and the USA, which eliminates the risk of the euro selling. Anyway, we try to look above the short-term fluctuations and again see that the USA is much closer to QE reduction than was believed a few weeks ago. We still hear about growing business activity in the USA. The Manufacturing ISM has been on the rise for six months in a row and the current rate of 57.3 is the highest since November 2011. Similarly the US construction spending is growing. In October it extended by 0.8%. The reaction of stock markets to it was more correct than that of Forex. After such news stocks came under pressure as the talks about the cut of the bond-buying programme and measures to tighten the monetary policy through reverse repos had resumed.
GBP/USD
The pound suffered its profit-taking yesterday. From the daily high of 1.6440, hit at the very beginning of the Asian session, the pair first dropped by a figure and then set out in the upward direction. There is a reason for strength of the British currency. Yesterday's Manufacturing PMI indicated growth acceleration instead of the expected correction. The index rose to 58.4 against last month's 56.5. This is the best rate since February 2011. The construction sector statistics are also scheduled for release today. They can support growth of the British currency as well.
USD/JPY
The pair hit a new local high at 103.37. At these levels the pair was trading for two days in late May, but it will hardly stop the bulls. The yen is still under pressure and it has already led it to the overbuy zone against three major currencies – USD, EUR, GBP.
AUD/USD
The heavy hand of the RBA keeps staking on the aussie. After another meeting of the Bank regarding the rate, we have again heard Stevens' comments that the AU currency is too expensive to adjust the economy to growth without involving the mining sector. Again the Aussie went down to the support level at 0.9060, but quickly bounced to 0.9110.
