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Euro Continues to be over 1.10 Against the US Dollar

By:
Peter Taberner

The euro has continued its rise against the US dollar, and has maintained a level over 1.10 against the greenback. Currently the euro is buying $1.118, a

Euro Continues to be over 1.10 Against the US Dollar

The euro has continued its rise against the US dollar, and has maintained a level over 1.10 against the greenback.

Currently the euro is buying $1.118, a leap from $1.112 in the early stages of yesterday afternoon GMT.

This is despite the positive data released on the United States economy, from the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, as the total of non farm employment in the economy rose by 151,000 jobs in January.

The most significant gains in the labour market was led by the retail trade industry, food services, health care, and manufacturing.

In contrast, employment declined in educational services, transportation and warehousing, and mining.

The euro has suffered a turbulent relationship with the UK pound, bouncing from buying just over £0.771 in the early hours of yesterday morning, to falling down to £0.766 today.

UK Pound Falls In the Aftermath of Rate Freeze

The UK pound has fallen again the US dollar, and appears to have reacted badly to the outcome of the Banks of England’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting, where it was decided that interest rates would remain at 0.5%.

Currently the UK pound is buying $1.44, a reduction from purchasing $1.458 yesterday morning.

Although In the past month the pound has appreciated against the dollar, particularly rising in the last week of January, as the US economy dealt with adverse economic conditions such as low oil prices.

Against the euro, the pound has slipped to buying EUR 1.29, which was a fall from $1.304 in the early hours of this morning.

Markit Data Reveals Slow European Economy

Data compiled by financial information services Markit has found that economic expansion across Europe in January, was found in only four of the 22 sectors surveyed.

The most notable successes were in construction materials and general industrials, in both cases the survey revealed that last month they achieved the highest amount of growth in the past two years.

Software and services and technology equipment were the other areas to see increases in productivity compared to December, and were ahead of their technology parent sector.

Beverages and other financials continued on their solid growth paths in January, throughout last year they were the best performing sectors.

Even though the pace of output had eased slightly, they still finished in fourth and eighth place in the survey respectively.

Food and banks were in the top ten from all the sectors reviewed, while consumer goods and financials also remained on a comfortable growth path for the first month of this year.

Mining and metals propped up the industry sector table, due to an aggressive contraction in output.

The commodities market is suffering badly from a bearish market, and prices have fallen dramatically, firms in the industry were found to be hesitant in the face of the sharpest drop in input prices since April 2009.

There was also lower economic activity reported in the health care services and pharmaceuticals & biotechnology, from all of the broad sectors that were monitored, healthcare was the worst performing.

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