European session: The euro strengthened

The euro strengthened the most in two weeks against the yen on speculation Greece will attract enough investors to make its debt-swap plan a success, adding to optimism the region’s debt crisis will be contained.  Greece’s largest banks, most of the country’s pension funds, and more than 30 European banks and insurers including BNP Paribas SA, Commerzbank AG (CBK) and Assicurazioni Generali SpA (G) have agreed to the offer. The 17-nation currency climbed for a second day against the dollar as European Central Bank refrain from cutting interest rates today and signal the region’s economy is improving.

The yen fell against all of its major counterparts after Japan reported a record current-account deficit, threatening to undermine the currency’s haven status. The yen fell toward a nine-month low versus the dollar after the Ministry of Finance said Japan had a current-account deficit of 437.3 billion yen in January. That’s the biggest shortfall since comparable data began in 1985 and was more than the median estimate of a 320 billion-yen deficit in a Bloomberg News survey of economists.

EUR/USD: during the European session the pair gain on a figure, updated a week’s high on $1,3264.

GBP/USD: during the European session the pair gain, holds nearby $1,5800.

USD/JPY: during the European the pair gain, restored to week’s high.

At 1230GMT, US initial jobless claims are expected to hold steady at 351,000, remaining in the very narrow range seen in the last three weeks. The weekly Bloomberg Comfort Index is due at 1445GMT and is followed at 1500GMT by Q4 services data and then at 1530GMT by Natural Gas Storage. Later data includes 1700GMT Flow of Funds and the 2130GMT release of M2 money supply.