Asian session: The euro touched the highest in almost six weeks

00:01 United Kingdom RICS House Price Balance November 57% 59% 58%

00:30 Australia National Australia Bank's Business Confidence November 5 5

00:30 Australia Home Loans October +4.4% +1.3% +1.0%

05:00 Japan Consumer Confidence November 41.2 44.2 42.5

05:30 China Retail Sales y/y November +13.3% +13.2% +13.7%

05:30 China Fixed Asset Investment November +20.1% +20.1% +19.9%

05:30 China Industrial Production y/y November +10.3% +10.2% +10.0%

06:00 Japan Prelim Machine Tool Orders, y/y November +8.4% 15.4%

The euro touched the highest in almost six weeks against the dollar before data today forecast to show a rebound in French industrial production. French industrial production probably rose 0.1 percent in October from the previous month, when it shrank 0.5 percent, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

The shared currency reached its strongest in five years versus the yen ahead of a speech by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi today.

The dollar rose to a six-month high against Japan’s currency after Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said the U.S. central bank should begin dialing back its asset purchases as soon as possible. Dallas Fed President Fisher said yesterday in a speech in Chicago that the central bank has done “more than enough” bond buying. Following an earlier speech in the city the same day, he told reporters that policy makers “should get started as soon as possible” on tapering their $85 billion of bond purchases each month.

The pound touched a two-year high versus the greenback before the release of a U.K. factory output report. In the U.K., industrial production probably increased 0.4 percent in October from the month before, when it gained 0.9 percent, according to a Bloomberg economist poll. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said yesterday that Britain’s recovery will need to be sustained for a while before it is strong enough to withstand higher interest rates.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session, the pair rose to $ 1.3765

GBP / USD: during the Asian session, the pair rose to $ 1.6465

USD / JPY: on Asian session the pair traded in the range of Y102.15-45

The markets continue to trade in fairly narrow ranges in Europe as year end approaches. However, the calendar has a fairly full status. The European calendar gets underway from 0745GMT, with the release of the French October industrial output data. At 0900GMT, Italian October industrial production data and third quarter GDP numbers will cross the wires. At 1200GMT, ECB President Mario Draghi is scheduled to speak at a conference in memory of Curzio Giannini, in Rome. ECB Governing Council member Inacio Visco will also speak at some point in the day.\There is a slew of UK data expected at 0930GMT, including October industrial production, October trade data and November BOE quoted rates. Most analysts expect industrial production expanded again on the month in October, albeit at a slower rate than seen in September after a weak reading in August. The manufacturing sector is still around 9% smaller than it was before the financial crisis hit, whereas the larger services sector has now made up the ground it lost during the recession. Other private sector surveys have shown manufacturing expanded strongly into Q4 after National Statistics data showed manufacturing output rose 0.9% quarter on quarter in Q3, the same rate of growth as seen in Q2. The PMI readings for the sector have been strong. Trade data for October will hopefully show some improvement after a poor performance in the third quarter, when overall trade was a significant drag on GDP growth. Even so, exports may well struggle to improve given the weak demand from the struggling Eurozone, Britain's main export partner.