Forex: Wednesday’s review

The euro gained the most in a month against the dollar after the Federal Reserve and five other central banks acted to make more funds available to lenders as Europe’s debt crisis threatens global economic growth. The central banks agreed to reduce the interest rate on dollar liquidity swap lines and extend their authorization through Feb. 1, 2013. The rate was cut to the dollar overnight index swap rate plus 50 basis points, or half a percentage point, from 100 basis points, the Fed said in a statement in Washington. The Bank of Canada, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, European Central Bank and Swiss National Bank are part of the coordinated move, the Fed said.

Europe’s shared currency weakened earlier after euro-area finance ministers conceded efforts to expand their bailout fund missed the target and said they would seek a greater role for the International Monetary Fund. All 27 European Union finance ministers meet today with a goal of agreeing on how to temporarily guarantee banks’ bond issuance to improve funding conditions for lending. European heads of government meet on Dec. 9 in Brussels, with Germany pushing for governance changes that would tighten enforcement of budget rules.

The dollar and yen slid earlier today as China cut the amount of cash banks must set aside as reserves to spur growth, damping demand for safer assets. The People’s Bank of China said reserve ratios will decline by 50 basis points effective Dec. 5, the first reduction since 2008.

Canada’s dollar rose after the nation’s economy grew at a 3.5 percent annualized pace in the third quarter, beating the 3 percent expansion forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.

EUR/USD: yesterday the pair has grown on a figure.

GBP/USD: yesterday the pair has grown on a figure.

USD/JPY: yesterday the pair fell updated week’s low.                                

European events for Thursday start at 0800GMT when ECB President Mario Draghi is due to present the ECB Annual Report at the

European Parliament Plenary. This morning also sees the release of the manufacturing PMIs from the main European states, including final data from France at 0848GMT, Germany at 0853GMT and leading up to the 0858GMT of the EMU final manufacturing PMI. European data also includes France car registrations at 1100GMT. As well as the BOE Financial Policy Committee note, UK data sees the 0928GMT release of the November Markit/CIPS Manufacturing PMI UK manufacturing is expected to contract in the fourth quarter, with the pace of contraction in November expected to more or less match that in October with a median forecast for today's data of 47. US data at 1330GMT, the weekly initial jobless claims are expected to fall 3,000 to 390,000 in the November 26 week. Also at 1500GMT the ISM manufacturing index is expected to rise to a reading of 52.0 in November after falling slightly in October. The regional data already released suggest only modest growth.