EUR/USD Dec. 17 – Rising to Higher Range on Hopes

EUR/USD is rising from the lower range to a higher one on an upcoming agreement in the European summit, and positive hints from China. Will this be enough for a positive close of the week? Here’s a quick update on technicals, fundamentals and community trends.

Euro/Dollar moving up.

EUR/USD Technicals

• Asian session:  Active session saw a breakout above 1.3267.
• Current Range between 1.3267 and 1.3334.
• Further levels in both directions: Below    1.3267, 1.3180, 1.3114, 1.30, 1.2920, 1.2722, 1.2587.  Above 1.3334, 1.3576,  1.37, 1.3786,  1.3950 and 1.4030.
• 1.3180 proved to be strong support.
• 1.3440 is important resistance above and remains as such after a breakout attempt failed.

EUR/USD Fundamentals –

• 8:15 ECB member Axel Weber talks.
• 9:00 German Ifo Business Climate. Exp. 109.2 points.
• 10:00 European Trade Balance. Exp. +2.9 billion.
• 15:00 US CB Leading Index. Exp. +1.2%.

* All times are GMT.

For the major events due later in the week, see the  EUR/USD outlook

EUR/USD Sentiment

• There are hopes for a wide solution to the European debt crisis in the European summit – perhaps a permanent bailout mechanism. This is one of the  5 reasons for the Euro rally. The European summit begins today.
• China says it will wait with rate hikes due to market turbulence. No rate hike is good for the Euro.
• Spanish bonds yields are still high on  Moody’s warns of a downgrade.
• The IMF joined the Irish parliament by approving the bailout plan.
• Moody’s downgrades Ireland from AA2 to BAA1. No real surprise here.
• US bond yields take a break – they went up to 3.57% but closed under 3.50%. This mostly affects USD/JPY, but also EUR/USD.
• Currensee Community: 50% are long , 50% are short. These are 1277 open positions in real accounts trading this pair at the moment.

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