Friday, 31 Dec 2010

Euro Moves Higher As Year End Approaches

In quiet trading this morning, the euro edged higher versus the majors as the dollar struggled. The rise in the may be attributed to traders closing profitable short positions.

A lack of news and a lack of market participants did not prevent traders from bidding the euro higher during the last trading day of the year.

Dollar selling continued into today following yesterday's better than expected US economic data. The USD/CHF pushed to a new all-time low while the USD/JPY felt to its lowest level in seven weeks.

But the spotlight currency of the day happens to be the euro as the EUR/USD moved to a two week high at a price of 1.3389 after opening the day at 1.3289. The EUR/JPY was up at 108.74, following an opening day price of 108.30. The EUR/CHF was trading higher at 1.2506 from yesterday's fresh all-time low of 1.2399.

Some of the gains experienced in the euro may be explained by traders closing out profitable short positions in the euro in order to book end of year gains.

Spot crude oil prices were flat at $89.38 but spot gold prices were up at $1413. Spot silver was unchanged today at $30.68 after reaching a new high yesterday at $30.89.

The New York trading session should be a quiet one with many trading desks working at skeleton staff levels.