25th Jan 2017 19:01
WASHINGTON (Alliance News) - The dollar is nearly unchanged in comparison to the Euro and the Japanese Yen Wednesday afternoon and is losing ground against the British pound. Corporate earnings reports are fueling a rally in equities today, as investors await a batch of economic reports at the end of the week.
Weekly jobless claims, new home sales and international trade are all due to be released Thursday, while GDP, durable goods orders and consumer sentiment are slated for Friday.
The dollar dropped to a low of USD1.0769 against the Euro Wednesday, but has since bounced back to around USD1.0725, nearly unchanged for the day.
German business confidence weakened to a four-month low in January as companies turned less optimistic about their outlook, survey data from the Munich-based Ifo institute showed Wednesday.
The business climate index dropped unexpectedly to 109.8 in January from 111.0 in December. The score was forecast to rise to 111.3. This was the lowest since September, when the reading was 109.5.
The total value of new orders received by the German construction industry decreased in November, figures from Destatis showed Wednesday. The seasonally, working-day and price-adjusted orders in construction dropped 1.0% month-over-month in November.
French manufacturing confidence remained stable at the highest level in more than five years in January, survey results from the statistical office Insee showed Wednesday. The manufacturing sentiment index held steady at 106 in January, in line with expectations. The score was the highest since August 2011.
The buck has fallen to over a 1-month low of USD1.2615 against the pound sterling Wednesday, from an early high of USD1.2490.
The greenback slipped to an early low of Y113.028 against the Japanese Yen Wednesday, but has since rebounded to around Y113.750.
Japan posted a merchandise trade surplus of 641.433 billion yen in December, the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday, up 361.6% on year. The headline figure beat expectations for a surplus of 281.1 billion yen following the downwardly revised 150.8 billion yen surplus in November.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX