Forex - Euro surges to 19-month high vs dollar; Pound off highs on GDP revision
Friday, November 24, 2006 5:23:23 AM
LONDON (AFX) - The euro stabilised comfortably above the 1.3050 level against the dollar after surging higher earlier as comments by the deputy governor of the People's Bank of China caused massive across-the-board selling in the US currency.
4CAST analyst Chris Furness said comments by a People's Bank of China official that east Asian currency reserves are at risk from the recent depreciation in the dollar 'encouraged buying of alternate currencies', particularly the euro.
PBoC deputy governor Wu Xiaoling was earlier quoted in an academic paper as saying, 'The exchange rate of the US dollar, which is the major reserve currency, is going lower, increasing the depreciation risk for east Asian reserve assets'.
The euro pushed through two big options barriers at 1.30 usd and 1.3050 usd to reach a 19-month high of 1.3087 usd.
The euro is continuing to benefit after yesterday's key German Ifo business climate survey unexpectedly surged to equal the 15-year high of 106.8 reached in June 2006, as well as from lower volumes as a result of the US Thanksgiving holiday yesterday.
'The rise in the German Ifo business climate indicator for November - to match the peak recorded in May - has reinforced investor confidence in the decoupling theme (that the euro zone economy can grow despite the slowdown in the US),' said Naeem Wahid, currency analyst at HBOS.
'This is the largest bias in favour of euro calls over euro puts since late 2004,' he said.
Meanwhile, other currencies also benefited, with the pound surging to a 23-month high of 1.9336 usd and the Australian dollar reaching its highest level in over six months of 0.7780 usd. The dollar also fell to a five-and-a-half month low against the Swiss franc of 1.2100.
The pound came off highs, however, moving back down towards the 1.30 level mark after UK data released this morning showed a downward revision to annual third quarter GDP growth to 2.7 pct from 2.8 pct previously. Quarterly growth, however, was confirmed at 0.7 pct.
Analysts had expected both the quarterly and annual rates to be left unrevised.
Elsewhere, the yen also benefited from the dollar's broad losses, with the US currency dropping to a two-and-a-half month low of 115.68 yen.
The Japanese currency's gains were less pronounced, however, allowing the euro to jump to a day high of 151.52 yen, close to the record high of 151.70 reached early this week.
London 1005 GMT Singapore 3.04 pm (0704 GMT)