RTTN:Canadian Dollar Jumps To Fresh 5-week High Against Greenback
(RTTNews) - The Canadian dollar edged higher in early deals Thursday as crude oil recouped yesterday's losses after the leaders of the European Union have finally struck a deal to pull the region out of its worst crisis since the World War II.
Yesterday, the crude oil fell to its lowest level in the week after a report showed that the U.S. oil inventories rose by 4.7 million barrels to 337.60 million barrels last week, bigger than the market expectations.
Light, sweet crude for December delivery that was down 2.3 percent following the EIA inventory data advanced almost $2 per barrel to $92.10 a barrel.
Addressing the media after the EU summit in Brussels, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that Greece's private debt holders have agreed to incur a 50 percent loss on holdings of Greek government bonds. Greece will be subjected to permanent budget supervision by EU.
Euro area member states will contribute to the private sector involvement package up to EUR 30 billion. Further, a new EU-IMF multi-annual program financing up to EUR 100 billion for Greece will be put in place by the end of the year, the EU said in a statement.
The leaders have also decided to leverage the European Financial Stability Facility, or EFSF, by 4 to 5 times, which is expected to yield around EUR 1 trillion ($1.4 trillion). They said further co-operation with the International Monetary Fund will be sought to enhance the EFSF resources.
The Canadian dollar continued to advance from parity against its US counterpart, rising as much as 0.9948 for the first time since September 21. With the greenback-loonie pair trading below the 50 percent of the retracement level, the next upside barrier for the loonie is seen around the 0.9890 level, at which the 61.8 percent of the retracement level lies.
Although the Canadian dollar erased some of its Asian session losses against the euro in early European deals, it failed to make any significant movement to either side. The euro-loonie pair leveled off at 1.3950 after see-sawing between a high of 1.4012 and a low of 1.3938.
Eurozone economic confidence slipped slightly in October, a survey from the European Commission showed today. The corresponding index came in at 94.8 in October, down from 95 in September but above the expected reading of 93.8.
The Canadian dollar that advanced to a 10-day high of 76.30 against the yen in the Asian session unable to break above this level in European trading. The pair moved in just a 10-pip range most of the session and is currently trading at 76.20. In the longer-term, the pair is now testing its 23.6 percent of the retracement level and a further rally could help to challenge its 38.2 percent of the Fibonacci level at 78.90.
(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan decided to enhance monetary easing by lifting the asset purchase program by around JPY 5 trillion to about JPY 55 trillion. The additional funds would be utilized to purchase Japanese government bonds to smoothen financial market conditions.
The policy board retained its benchmark uncollateralized overnight call rate at around 0-0.1 percent by a unanimous vote.
Meanwhile, Japan's retail sales were down a seasonally adjusted 1.5 percent to 10.571 trillion yen in September compared to the previous month, well shy of forecasts for a 0.5 percent contraction following the 1.7 percent decline in August.
On an annual basis, retail sales retreated 1.2 percent - again missing by a mile forecasts for a fall of 0.1 percent after declining 2.6 percent in the previous month.
Looking ahead, the U.S. advance estimate of third quarter GDP, weekly jobless claims for the week ended October 22 and pending home sales for September are expected in the New York morning session.
