The single European currency was resuming strength this afternoon against all competing currencies, driven in particular by the German ZEW index. Thus, about 24:45, displayed the euro up 0.44% to 1.3225 dollar.
A low point was reached this morning from 1.3166 was reached this morning.
Similarly, the European currency gained 0.26% against the pound at 0.8474, 0.12% to 102.85 against the yen and symbolically 0.05% to 1.2362 against the franc.
A North European trader this morning gave an update on the decisions and / or recent announcements of rating agencies. On the one hand, Standard & Poor’s “indicates that the notes of the debts of European countries are likely to be degraded again imminently. In addition, Fitch and Moody’s said yesterday that they saw an increased risk after the signing of the Europe Agreement on Friday. ”
He added that the case of France is particularly mentioned, and that the loss of its ‘AAA’ by the Hexagon would have “very negative implications for both Paris and for the EFSF whose rating also depends on that of France” .
In terms of sovereign rates at 10 years, that of Italy was stretched slightly to 6.66% this morning, when Spain was 5.80%, 3.30% in France and Germany by 2.06 %.
However, we learned this morning that the ZEW index of economic sentiment speakers from Germany, the first euro area economy, had emerged up 1.4 points to -53.8 this month, thus an end to nine months of consecutive decline.
“Financial experts seem to expect a slowdown in economic activity, but not a dive over the next six months, “commented the president of the ZEW, which sees this improvement possible effect of the decisions of the EU summit .
Some caution is likely to stay put, especially since ‘concerns about European debt will continue to dominate, since no one seems to really know the outcome of the case’, admitted this morning a trader IG Index.
Expected, this afternoon on the agenda on the American side statistics, retail sales in November (forecast: 0.6% Previous: +0.5%) and the status of stocks of companies. Later that evening, we expect the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Fed (FOMC).
