On Friday the common European currency continued to gain ground against all commodity-linked currencies including the Kiwi, Aussie and Loonie, owing to exceptionally low oil prices which are putting pressure on state budgets in Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Oil prices continued to collapse on Thursday, by reaching the lowest level since late-December 2003. They are putting heavy pressure on commodity-related currencies.
American statistics was exceptionally positive yesterday, with labour market showing solid job gains in December and trade deficit shrinking. However, a key economic event of the day, namely FOMC meeting minutes, was successful in derailing all gains of the Greenback.
The Euro was down across the board on Tuesday, the second trading session of this year. The Yen continued to benefit the most from turbulent equity markets around the world. Investors are seeking for safety amid turmoil and negative statistical data coming from China.
Weakness in the commodities sector pushed Australian, New Zealand and Canadian dollars to the downside against the Euro on Monday, the first working day of 2016.
The Euro bounced back against the Swiss Franc on Thursday of the last week, but at the same time it failed to continue growing with respect to other G10 currencies.
The common currency traded mainly in green on Wednesday; however, tumbling volumes of trading led to little changes for any of the components.
The Euro was reversing earlier gains during the whole trading session on Tuesday. The sharpest losses were registered against all commodity-related currencies including the Aussie, Loonie and Kiwi.
Monday was a rare day of the year when completely no fundamentals were published in all G8 countries except Japan. There were Bank Holidays in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as they followed a long Christmas weekend.
The Euro finished its pre-Christmas trading in a mild positive trend versus other G10 currencies. Though, some components registered only a marginal increase of three, four or five basis points.
The common European currency traded down across the board on Wednesday of this week. We saw the Euro losing just 0.08% versus the Swiss Franc, as the EUR/CHF cross is usually considered to be the least volatile component from our review.
The British Pound was a clear loser on Tuesday of this week, following a strongly disappointing public sector borrowing data. EUR/GBP surged by 0.8%, after the report revealed that the UK Government borrowed 14.2 billion pounds in November of this year, up from revised 6.7 billion pounds in October.
The Euro traded in a relatively tight range against the other G10 majors on Monday, given that the majority of this week's fundamentals are set to be published starting from Tuesday.
Friday fundamentals disappointed markets across the board, with worse-than-expected data published in Japan, Euro zone, Canada and US.
US Dollar started to appreciate strongly only on the second day after the Federal Reserve's rate decision. Yesterday it surged by 0.8% versus the common European currency, although other fundamentals have most favoured the Euro.
The Japanese Yen was hurt by a declining Japanese trade balance, which swung back into the red zone in November and sent the national currency lower. A shortfall reached 379.7 billion yen last month, following a positive exports-imports gap of 111.5 billion yen in October.
In spite of recovering oil prices, the Australian Dollar failed to show value gains versus the European common currency on Tuesday, as the EUR/AUD cross was the day's biggest gainer with a rise of 0.15%.
The Euro hovered in a mixed environment on Monday of this week, but the overall EUR Index was aggregately unchanged. Three components, which include all commodity-linked currencies, felt heavy downside pressure yesterday.
The European currency benefited from heavy losses suffered by commodity-related currencies on Friday, which were caused by the steep oil price decline. EUR/AUD skyrocketed a mere 1.7% and EUR/CAD followed with a rally of 1.4%. Also, the Euro/Kiwi cross closed the session with a surge of more than one full percentage point.
The Euro has given up some earlier gains we had observed back on Wednesday. Yesterday the 19-nation currency depreciated against all of its main counterparts, posting the sharpest drop versus the Aussie and Kiwi. Both South Pacific currencies had their own personal reasons for the appreciation.
EUR/USD advanced the most by 1.22% during the trading session on Wednesday, even despite the lack of any fundamental drivers throughout the session both from the Euro area and US. Germany's trade balance deteriorated in October, but the Euro's spike confirms that this data used to have little impact on the overall state of affairs.
The small number of important fundamentals from Europe and important data from other countries used to have an overall positive impact on the Euro in the past 24 hours. The common currency jumped by more than one full percentage point against Australian and Canadian dollars, which were hit by a continuous slump of oil prices.
While the aggregate market was little volatile on Monday, several currencies reflected important developments in other fundamental factors and managed to register much sharper daily changes.
The Euro corrected lower across the board last Friday, following major gains that the 19-nation currency had made earlier on Thursday of the previous week.