European session: the euro rose slightly against the U.S. dollar

Data

05:00 Japan Bookmark new homes, y / y +7.1% +9.5 November% +14.1%

05:00 Japan confidence index in the small business December 51.1 51.1

The euro exchange rate rose slightly against the dollar, which is likely due to the expectations publishing data on employment in the United States. Recall that at 13:30 GMT The Ministry of Labour will publish data on the number of new applications for unemployment benefits in the U.S. last week. According to the median forecast of economists , the number of applications has grown up to a week for 3 thousand - to the level of 382 thousand

We also add that given the fact that trading volume today is quite low and there were no data for the euro area , the U.S. reaction to the data can be extremely unpredictable , especially if the data will be noticeably better or worse than the forecasts of experts.

The yen fell to a five-year low against the dollar amid speculation that the Bank of Japan will continue to unprecedented incentives, while the Federal Reserve reduces quantitative easing , as the U.S. economy recovers . According to the published minutes of the last meeting today, Bank of Japan , held 20-21 November , one of the leaders of the Central Bank said that the GDP data for the period from July to September , may indicate that the trend of economic growth turned around and began descending .

" One member said that the slowdown in real GDP growth may not be a temporary phenomenon , but rather indicate a trend reversal down " - said in a summary of the discussions held at the meeting.

Recall that the Bank of Japan at its meeting upheld the current monetary policy , as well as an overall assessment of the economy , saying that the recovery was " moderate ."

Nevertheless , the central bank revised its outlook on the state of overseas economies , understated weakness emerging economies. According to the minutes , all nine members of the Bank of Japan unanimously voted to keep the bank's policy unchanged , as expected by economists. Next meeting on monetary policy the Bank of Japan is scheduled for 21-22 January 2014.

EUR / USD: during the European session, the pair rose to $ 1.3695

GBP / USD: during the European session, the pair rose to $ 1.6400

USD / JPY: during the European session, the pair rose to Y104.82

At 13:30 GMT the United States declares including initial claims for unemployment insurance . at 23:30 GMT Japan will announce the change in our level of household expenditure , and publish data on consumer price index for November and the consumer price index for Tokyo in December . Also at this time go out preliminary data on industrial production and change in retail sales for November.