The Euro registered a generally positive trading session on Tuesday, with only EUR/JPY booking a loss of 0.56%. The Yen resumed gaining value amid risk-off market sentiment, which is pushing the flow of cash into the Japanese currency.
Nearly all the yesterday's news related to the United States were bearish, coming short of the expectations.
Ignoring the fact of a declining US Dollar, energy commodities plummeted more than enough over Monday's trading session.
In anticipation of today's employment and milk price statistics, the New Zealand Dollar decided to start appreciating against the Euro already on Monday of the new week.
The Pound benefited greatly from yesterday's fundamentals. And even though some of the minor ones were below expectations, the manufacturing PMI surprised to the upside.
The US Dollar was able to post relatively solid gains against most major peers on Friday and over the weekend, with exception versus the commodity-based currencies.
The British currency suffered losses against most major peers on Friday and over the weekend.
Friday was a green day for all commodities that are included in our daily review. Even precious metals avoided a decrease in prices, by growing 0.1% for silver and 0.3% for gold. Stock markets and oil prices were supported by the Bank of Japan's interest rate decision.
The Euro continued to appreciate only against the Japanese Yen on Friday, showing gains of 0.94% in the wake of the unexpected decision made by the Bank of Japan to slash interest rates and send them into the negative territory.
Most of the US releases disappointed yesterday, leaving the Greenback among the worst-performing currencies.
Although the fundamentals were only in line with the forecasts, this did not prevent the British Pound from outperforming all its major peers, also against the background of the BoE tilting more towards the dovish side.
Thursday market session was another bullish one for energy prices. Crude and Brent oil climbed by around 2-3% throughout the day, following speculations that Russia and OPEC countries may join forces in order to curb production and push prices to the upside.
The Bank of Japan made an unprecedented decision to introduce a negative interest rate on bank deposits. To support a sluggish economy and raise inflation expectations, the BOJ curbed the deposit rate to -10 basis points from 0.1% earlier.
US Dollar was mixed on Wednesday, although this is relatively good performance, considering that yesterday's FOMC comments were bearish.
The British Pound was among the weakest currencies yesterday, winning 0.23% only against the New Zealand Dollar, which came under strong selling pressure due to an increasing possibility of further rate cuts.
Commodity prices continued to benefit from growing risk appetite on Wednesday. Continuous speculations about the possibility of Russian-OPEC cooperation to cut oil production were positively reflected in oil prices.
Decision of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand was the main trigger for Kiwi's drop on Wednesday, as this currency lost 1.3% versus the Euro.
Despite a strong reading of the US CB Consumer Confidence on Tuesday, the Greenback failed to post gains against most major peers, only outperforming the Swiss Franc and somewhat the Japanese Yen.
BoE's Governor Mark Carney's statement on Tuesday reassured investors' outlook towards the UK economy, causing a buying spree of the British currency.
Commodities used to grow in price on Tuesday, as political news provided some positive ground for gains. Brent and Crude oil surged by 3.7-4.3%, as several oil-producing countries announced they are ready to work together, in order to effectively cut production and find equilibrium between supply and demand.
The Euro traded in a mixed environment on Tuesday, by growing against major safe haven currencies and depreciating versus commodity currencies and the British Pound.
The Greenback experienced mixed performance on Monday, appreciating mostly against commodity currencies, while suffering losses against some safe-havens.
Since there were no clear catalysts on Monday, the Sterling experienced mixed performance over the day.
Markets are questioning ability of the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates four times in 2016, as policymakers had indicated they were planning to do it earlier in December.