American focus: the dollar continued to appreciate against most major currencies

The euro fell against the dollar, approaching to a minimum on May 27 against Draghi's speech at the press conference that followed the decision to leave policy unchanged. Recall, the lending rate was left at 0.05%, deposit rate - at 0.2%. During the press conference after the announcement of the rate decision Draghi said that the ECB is expected to strengthen the euro-zone economic recovery, despite the uncertainty in the financial markets. "GDP growth in the eurozone in the first quarter of 2015 was confirmed at 0.4%, it was supported by private consumption and investment. We expect further expansion of economic recovery of the eurozone in the future" - said Draghi. The head of the ECB noted that the situation in the financial markets, including the factor of uncertainty assessment has not changed the economic recovery in the eurozone. He noted that evidence obtained since the previous meeting in June, largely in line with forecasts. Downside risks to the economic outlook for the euro area as a whole are constrained due to the monetary policy of the ECB, oil prices and the dynamics of the currency market, Draghi said. He added that the full implementation of all the measures of monetary policy will provide the necessary support for economic recovery and sustainable return will cause inflation to the target level of 2% in the medium term.

The Swiss franc depreciated significantly against the dollar, reaching the lowest level since April 28 against the backdrop of a weak report on retail sales in Switzerland and the positive statistics on the US labor market. Recall, the preliminary results from the Federal Statistical Office showed that retail sales in Switzerland declined in May. In real terms, retail sales decreased by 1.8 percent in May compared to the previous year, after falling 0.1 percent in April. It was the fifth consecutive month of decline. Excluding fuel, retail sales fell by 1.6 per cent per annum, as opposed to the 0.4 percent increase in April. On a monthly basis, retail sales were down 1.4 percent in May, reversing an increase of 0.9 percent in April. Sales excluding fuel fell 1.5 percent after increasing 0.7 percent a month ago. In nominal terms, total retail trade turnover decreased by 3.9 percent per annum and by 1.6 percent on a monthly basis.

The yen fell against the US currency, reaching the lowest level since June 24, which was associated with the publication of data on the US labor market, and expectations of Fed Yellen speech. The Labor Department said initial applications for unemployment benefits fell by 15,000 and reached a seasonally adjusted 281,000 in the week ended July 11th. Economists expected 285,000 initial claims. The moving average of four weeks, designed to smooth out weekly changes, rose by 3250 to 282 500. The report on Thursday showed that the 296,000 initial claims were filed in the week ended July 4th, which was revised down from the earlier estimate of 297000. In addition The number of people continuing to receive unemployment benefits fell by 112,000 to 2.215 million in the week ended July 4th. Repeated applications communicate with one week delay.