Confidence In Euro Strength Is Rising
(eToro Blog) For the time being, investor concerns over Eurozone debt appears to have been put on the back burner as a new deal for Greek aid is being seriously considered. The European markets are reacting to several pieces of Eurocentric data which were released earlier today, all of which sets the stage for a rise in the Eurozone's common currency, as well as the Swiss Franc.
First, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs in Switzerland reported that GDP growth for the first quarter of 2011 grew more slowly than expected to 0.3%, well off the 0.7% forecast by economists and the 0.8% growth of the previous quarter. In spite of the surprising numbers, the country's chief economist noted that the Swiss economy's expansion is still respectable, as supported by exports and investment in the building sector.
In Germany, the statistics office reported that the unemployment rate slipped to 7% from 7.1%, in line with analysts' expectations. Analysts note that the improvement is attributed to German manufacturing which have increased hiring to meet export demand. The Eurozone's unemployment rate was also subsequently released, and remains stubbornly fixed at the 9.9%.
Eurostat reported that Eurozone's inflation eased lower to 2.7% from 2.8% of the previous period; analysts had expected no change in the data, which still remains higher than the ECB target of 2%. ECB officials have said that they will keenly monitor inflationary trends and this improvement in the data, albeit small, is likely to take some pressure off the central bank.
The Euro is broadly higher today, and eToro analysts still see a bullish uptrend for the EUR/USD pair, recently higher at 1.4403. On the eToro trading floor, traders are heavily in favor of selling over buying by 60 sellers to 6 buyers. The Swiss Franc is also moving higher, with USD/CHF recently at 0.8511; on the eToro trading floor, sentiment favors buyers by 5 buyers to 4 sellers. Traders of GBP/USD, recently at 1.6503, favor selling over buying by 11 sellers to 8 buyers, suggesting that the U.S. Dollar continues to be under pressure following last week's soft economic data.
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