Tuesday, January 14, was a good day to buy the single currency, as EUR/USD pair hit an intraday high of 1.3696 on comments from one of ECB members, Ewald Nowotny, who pointed out the Eurozone can post stronger-than-expected growth this year.
The Australian Dollar was trading around a five-week high at 0.9063 against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, as the greenback fell on the back of disastrous data from the U.S. labour market, that reflected economy's inability to create jobs in December, while participation rate stood at the lowest level since 1978.
Business confidence in New Zealand surged to the highest level since 1994 as the economic recovery expanded across regions, while house prices rose the most in six years, reinforcing the view the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will need to hike interest rates in the foreseeable future.
British economy is on the mend and rumours about sooner-than-expected rate hike from the Bank of England are heating up with almost each portion of fundamental data.
During the December FOMC meeting the Fed has shed some light on their future moves, providing some relief for market participants who were making their bets on when and how the central bank will start tapering its QE during the last six months or so.
While French First Lady awaits a clarification of her status from Francois Hollande, who was alleged in love affair with an actress, market participants are focusing on this week's Hollande's speech where he can announce some changes in his political and economic spots.
Back to September 2011 the Swiss National Bank decided to impose a cap on the Swiss Franc against the Euro in order to limit currency's appreciation as well as avoid deflation and to assure a sustainable growth in the Alpine economy.
The last week was not so good for the Canadian economy, as all but one report surprised markets to the downside.
The Sterling lost ground versus the U.S. Dollar for the first time in three days following disappointing fundamental data that raised concerns about the sustainability of the U.K. economic recovery.
In December the Federal Reserve decided to start tapering its monthly asset purchases, citing strong labour market and overall economic improvement.
The Eurozone economy is strengthening and fears of another recession have eased after the latest positive data.
As always, the first week of a month is usually more interesting for traders than its second part, as it includes central banks' meeting all over the world, as well as data from key sectors of the economy, and can shed some light on future moves of policymakers.
Australian central bank decided to stay in the "wait-and-see" mode during its December policy meeting, expressing their readiness to act in case economy struggles to grow.
Many positive outlooks for economic growth of Canada in 2014, which have been supported by a better than expected performance in the third quarter of last years along with a recovery of the global economy overall, might be overoptimistic.
The U.K. central bank left its monetary policy unchanged in December, even despite a flow of positive fundamental data. According to the Bank of England report the Monetary Policy Committee decided to keep the benchmark interest rate at 0.5%, while the size of its bond-buying programme held steady at 375 billion pounds.
The world's largest economy ended the last year on a high note, as growing debates on whether how and when the Federal Reserve will start trimming down its stimulus programme helped to boost consumers' and businesses' confidence, positively contributing to the economy.
The 2014 year so far definitely cannot be considered as a ‘good year' for the Euro, as the single currency was strongly undermined by the ECB comments and other data, falling to its lowest level in one month against the U.S. Dollar hitting 1.3548 on Thursday.
The number of New Zealand building consents granted by local councils for new homes rose 11% in December, driven by apartment developments.
Shinzo Abe and Haruhiko Kuroda are both determined to revive growth in the world's third largest economy by any means necessary.
Is Britain at risk of a housing bubble? Perhaps, but the latest data suggests fears are exaggerated, as house price fell between November and December, posting the first monthly decline since January 2013.
As usual a report from the ADP gives a first insight into the official labour market report due on Friday. Analysts expected payrolls to fall following November's strong gain; however, a surprise jump in private sector hiring is bolstering the case the Fed can trim down its monthly purchases at a faster pace than previously was thought.
The 18-nation bloc started this year with a bunch of mixed data as unemployment rate remained at a record high, while retail sales rebounded strongly, suggesting the region has stabilized; however, it is too early to speak about robust growth.
The Australian Dollar started this year by performing a strong rally against its U.S. counterpart, however, after hitting a crucial level of 0.90 the pair pulled back and extended its decline on Tuesday, following a report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
During December the EUR/CHF currency couple was highly volatile, first depreciating from 1.2325 to 1.2166 and then rocketing above previous highs.