Daily Afternoon Report 27/11/2012 | Forex Trading Analysis

The Europe we saw at the beginning of today’s session was very different than the Europe of yesterday, at least from a trader’s perspective. Euro-zone leaders came to an agreement on Greece that lowered interest rates, returned some of the money made off of previous loans, and setup the release of the next 34.4 billion Euro aid tranche in December. The Euro has now erased all of the gains following the Greece announcement and is trading slight above 1.2950 against the US Dollar in currency markets.

UK gross domestic product for Q3 confirmed 1.0% economic expansion over the quarter, as the Olympics and previous quarter’s Jubilee holiday gave the UK a one-time spike in growth. Office for National Statistics’ release, output in production industries rose by only 0.9%, down from a previously estimated 1.1%. Service industry was confirmed to have seen a 1.3% rise in output.

The US Dollar rose a bit when Fed member Fisher said during a speech in Berlin that he advocates setting limits to QE as soon as the next meeting. Fisher said that the US’s biggest problem is unemployment and that inflation is under control in the US. 

Daily Morning Report 26/11/2012 | Forex Trading Analysis

  The dollar gains against the major global currencies on Monday as investors parked in the safe-haven greenback waiting to see if Eurozone and IMF will work out a deal to help Greece. The IMF, EU finance ministers and officials from the European Central Bank are due to meet on Monday to discuss freeing up pending aid for Greece. European governments support giving Greece a two-year extension to cut the country's debt to 120% of GDP by 2022, a proposal at which the IMF has balked. Investors hope that all sides strike a deal and free up aid earmarked for Athens, though until such an announcement becomes public, the dollar will be the safe-heaven.

Daily Afternoon Report 01/11/2012

Euro remains uncertain with doubts still looming about the future of Greece and Spain, the British Pound has still managed to find its way higher following positive statements and releases about the UK. The Euro has dropped over the course of the European session, possibly because of a report that Spain will continue its ban on short selling or maybe because of general pessimism felt in forex news about the Euro over the past few days.

Euro-zone unemployment was also reported today at 11.6% in September, slightly higher than expectations for 11.5% and higher than August’s revised 11.5% unemployment rate. The unemployment is significantly higher than the 10.3% rate in September of 2011, as the Euro debt crisis has placed immense pressure on the Euro-zone economy. The total amount of people looking for work in the Euro-zone now stands at 18.49 million. Germany reported a 5.4% unemployment rate, while Spain had the worst rate of unemployment at 25.8%.

A drop in UK manufacturing has accelerated at a faster pace according to the Purchasing Managers’ Index by Markit Economics. The PMI for manufacturing for October was reported at 47.5, lower than the expected 48 index result and lower than September’s revised 48.1 PMI. A PMI below 50 indicates a drop in manufacturing activity, and October marks the sixth straight month of negative activity.