USD

The greenback is stronger versus most of its peers, but has slumped versus the euro. Traders have decided to purchase the dollar following the stock market rally on Wall Street yesterday. The reason why the USD has made such notable inroads into the AUD and CAD is due to slowing Australian and Canadian economies. On the other hand, the U.S. is growing at a much healthier pace. The GBP/USD forex pair is weaker by 0.11% at $1.5829.

EUR

The euro has gradually climbed versus the yen, pound and dollar after the publication of data showing an improvement in the state of the Eurozone. The EUR/GBP cross is higher today by 19 pips at 84.22 pence. It seems that policymakers in the region have been successful in boosting sentiment. This is vital if the Eurozone will eventually put an end to the debt crisis. The euro may climb further is the U.S. published better-than-forecast economic data later on this Thursday.

JPY

The yen is one of the weakest currencies today following the rally in Japanese stocks. This came due to top companies in Japan posting positive earnings. This was required for a company which is in very bad shape. The direct result has been a bearish yen. The USD/JPY pair is higher today by 94 cents at 89.56 yen. There is a lack of demand for the Japanese currency today, as the Bank of Japan may take further steps in helping to improve the nation’s growth.

There was a fall in Asian stocks earlier this morning on the news that North Korea threatened a nuclear test and iPhone sales dived on rising competition.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slid 0.4% to 477.69. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slumped 0.2%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index made losses of 0.8%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed 1.3%.
Toyota added 2.2% to 4,245 yen. Sony jumped 1.9% to 1,189 yen. Lenovo Group gained 6.6% to HK$8.43.

The losses in Asia earlier this morning came in spite of the gains which U.S. equities capped during yesterday’s trading session. The news of the falling profit for Apple due to the worse-than-forecast iPhone sales really hurt the Asian markets.

The U.S. will need to post positive unemployment figures for U.S. shares to gain.

Crude Oil

Crude oil dived yesterday on the rising U.S. supplies. In addition, the forecast that inventories surged last week led traders to sell the energy. Yesterday’s losses may also be due to traders deciding to take out profit.

The price of crude is higher today by 28 cents at $95.50. Traders have bought into the crude oil binary option this morning, as there is a feeling that the recent losses which we saw may have been overdone.

The reality is that both China and the U.S. have published a lot of positive economic data as of late. Therefore, there is clear evidence that the world’s 2 largest economies are improving.

This may turn out to give traders additional confidence during U.S. hours, so you want to open your key crude positions now.

EUR/USD

The EUR/USD forex binary option was much weaker several hours ago. However, it has made a bullish comeback, and is trading up 15 pips at $1.333. The euro has gained versus the dollar in the past few hours on the publication of positive economic data from the Eurozone. This was the news required to push the euro higher today. Economic data from the U.S. and Canada will be crucial to follow today while trading the EUR/USD pair.