Dollar mostly lower as traders wait on China PMI The U.S. dollar traded lower against most of its major rivals during Thursday’s Asian session as traders await some important economic data out of China. In Asian trading Thursday, EUR/USD rose 0.06% to 1.3786. On Wednesday, the euro came under a bit of pressure after the European Central Bank announced plans to submit banks to new stress tests next year. The review is to run over the course of a year and conclude before the ECB assumes its supervisory role over the bloc’s banking sector at the end of 2014. The news sparked concerns over a revival of the crisis in the euro zone. Later Thursday, the euro zone is to release preliminary data on manufacturing and service sector activity, a leading indicator of economic health. Germany and France are also to release individual reports. Those countries are the euro zone’s two largest economies. USD/JPY was lower by 0.07% at 97.47. The yen got a lift Wednesday on speculation of rising Chinese money-market rates, a sign the financial sector may be anticipating Chinas central bank to tighten policy. GBP/USD rose 0.05% to 1.6172. On Wednesday, the minutes of the Bank of England’s October meeting showed that the unemployment rate appears to be falling at a faster than expected rate as the robust recovery gains traction. The unemployment rate declined to 7.7% from 7.8% since the bank released its August inflation report, when it said it would take three years to fall to the threshold of 7% at which it would start to look at raising interest rates. USD/CHF inched down 0.01% 0.8924 while USD/CAD fell 0.06% to 1.0380 even after the Energy Information Administration said the U.S. produced an average of 7.6 million barrels per day in August, the highest rate since 1989. AUD/USD rose 0.15% to 0.9637 while NZD/USD jumped 0.27% to 0.8416. Later Thursday, the HSBC China flash Purchasing Managers Index for October is due out. The HSBC final PMI reading for September was 50.2, well below the flash estimate of 51.2. China is the largest export market for both Australia and New Zealand. The U.S. Dollar Index inched down 0.03% to 79.32.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 05:21:51 +0000
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