Forex: Thursday’s review

The Swiss franc rose against all of its major counterparts on demand for a refuge as European leaders struggled to agree on a solution to the region’s debt crisis before a summit this weekend.

The dollar rose versus the yen after the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s general economic index increased to 8.7 in October from minus 17.5 last month in the biggest one-month rebound in 31 years.

Japan plans to spend an extra 4 trillion yen ($52 billion) to cope with a surging yen that could damp an export-led recovery in the world’s third-largest economy. The yen’s appreciation of almost 6 percent this year versus the dollar has prompted the government to adopt a multipronged approach to currency policy. While threatening intervention, Japanese authorities have offered aid to companies hit by the yen’s gain and highlighted the lower cost of making overseas acquisitions. Japan imports about 80 percent of its energy needs. The Bank of Japan has intervened in the currency market three times in the past 13 months.

EUR/USD: yesterday the pair rose.

GBP/USD: yesterday the pair advanced.

USD/JPY: yesterday the pair rose.

On Friday european data begin at 0800GMT with the German IFO business survey where the business climate index is expected to decline to 106.2 with the current assessment at 116.5 and expectations index at 97.0.US data is limited to the 1400GMT release of the BLS State Unemployment data. At 1700GMT, Minneapolis Fed President Narayana  Kocherlakota delivers a speech to the Harvard Club of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Shortly after, at 1720GMT, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher delivers a speech on the economy to The Friday Group in Dallas.