EUR/USD Performance Chart as at 7:00 p.m. Singapore time, 21/04/11

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HISTORICAL DETAILS 

% Change

1 Wk 0.84%

1 Month 2.92%

3 Months 7.26%

6 Months 4.96%

1 Year 8.75%

 

52 WEEK

High 1.4649

Low 1.1877

 

BLOOMBERG MEDIAN FORECASTS

Q2 2011 1.41

Q3 2011 1.38

Q4 2011 1.37

Q1 2011 1.35

 

DAILY DETAIL

As investors abandoned the US dollar, the euro moved up to a 16-month high versus the American currency. Risk appetite and illiquid trading conditions ahead of Easter helped to accentuate the positive momentum behind the euro, while sovereign debt concerns eased following yesterday’s successful Spanish bond auction. Optimism about the global economy and expectations of further tightening by the ECB are the main reasons for the euro’s gains, as earnings in the US continue to provide positive surprises. However, the sovereign debt crisis refuses to go away, as seen by the continued rise in Greek and Portuguese debt yields. Spreads between 10-year bonds issued by the embattled governments in Lisbon and Athens and those issued by Germany have widened to euro area records (600 and 1159 basis points, respectively), as persistent rumours about a Greek restructuring circulate. All this uncertainty has shaken business confidence in Germany, where the April IFO reading declined slightly to 110.4 from 111.1 in March. The decline was marginally larger than the one predicted by economists, who had expected a drop to 110.5. Ominously, the gauge of future expectations was also down, from 106.5 to 104.7 (a reading of 105.5 having been forecast), showing that even the ironclad German economy is not immune from the wider region’s jitters. Chris Beauchamp, London