Investing.com - The euro rallied against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, climbing more than 1% after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said a vote to leave interest rates in the euro zone unchanged this month was unanimous.
EUR/USD hit 1.3219 during U.S. morning trade, the pair’s highest since January 2; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.3214, advancing 1.14%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3038, the session low and resistance at 1.3293, the high of January 2 and an almost eight-month high.
Speaking at the bank’s post-policy meeting press conference Draghi said a gradual economic recovery would begin this year, as structural reforms and actions by the ECB to tackle the region’s debt crisis continued to take effect.
The ECB left interest rates on hold at 0.75% in a widely anticipated decision earlier, but some market participants had expected Draghi to hint at the possibility of rate cuts later in 2013.
Earlier Thursday Spain saw borrowing costs fall sharply at an auction of government debt.
Spain’s Treasury sold EUR5.8 billion worth of debt, above the full targeted amount of EUR5 billion, with the yield on five-year bonds down to 3.99% from 4.20% at an auction last week.
Elsewhere, Italy saw borrowing costs fall to the lowest level since January 2010 at an auction of 12-month government bonds.
The euro rose to an eight-day high against the pound, with EUR/GBP rising 0.58% to 0.8197 and hit fresh 18-month highs against the broadly weaker yen, with EUR/JPY rallying 1.52% to 116.57.
The Bank of England kept its benchmark interest rate on hold at 0.5% and maintained the size of its asset purchase program at GBP375 billion Thursday, in a widely anticipated decision.
In the U.S., the Department of Labor said he number of people who filed for unemployment assistance last week rose to a seasonally adjusted 371,000 from 367,000 the previous week compared to expectations for a decline to 365,000.
Jobless claims for the preceding week were revised down to 367,000 from a previously reported 372,000 the report said.
