Dollar near its highest level in 7 months and the euro falls

Dollar was trading Thursday, at its highest level in seven months against a basket of currencies after data showed increased optimism that the U.S. economy is on its way to recovery and can withstand monetary tightening

The gains helped widely in pushing the dollar index to rise 0.1% on the day to 80.996, not far from its highest level in seven months, who scored on Wednesday at 84.055 after data showed U.S. retail sales rose in February at the fastest rate in five months.
The euro $ 1.2951, down 0.1% to near its lowest level in three months at $ 1.2923 hit on Wednesday.

The dollar also rose to its highest level in four months at 5.7968 Norwegian kroner after the central bank postponed the appointment is expected to raise interest rates.

Continued both the euro and the dollar to appreciate against the Japanese yen The dollar increased 0.3% to 96.40 yen and the euro rose 0.2% to 124.75 yen

Source: Reuters

Japanese stocks jump in early trading

Rebounded Japanese stocks in early trading Thursday, following two days of losses after that eased auction positive for bonds Italian concern that elections Italy, which did not produce a decisive result could spark renewed debt crisis the euro zone and U.S. data, showed an improvement for the largest economy in the world

 

The Nikkei share average jumped to shares of major Japanese companies 1.3 percent to 11395.16 points in the first minutes of trading on the Tokyo after suffering a loss of 3.5 percent in the previous two sessions

The benchmark broader Topix 1.1 percent to 964.29 points....

Italy's economy will shrink more than expected in 2013

European Commission predicted that the recession in Italy this year worse than shown by previous forecasts, underscoring the scale of the challenge facing the Will be elected Italians government by the weekend



The Commission said that the Italian economy will shrink 1% in 2013 after they had predicted last November contracted by 0.5%, and compares the expectations of a contraction of 0.3% for the euro zone, which shows that Italy is still lagging behind its partners.

Italians will elect austerity-weary weekend a new government to replace the government economic competencies led by Mario Monti, which imposed taxes and cuts in spending to save Italy from a financial crisis such as occurred in Greece

Deepening slowdown in the euro zone this month

Intensified economic slowdown in the euro zone this month, with the decline in key economic indicator released to the lowest level in two months

 
Economic research group said, "Markit" at its headquarters in London, said its index of purchasing managers for the manufacturing and services sectors in the euro zone fell to 3.47 points this month, compared with 6.48 points in January.

This led to the index fell away from the main level of 50 points, which reflects economic growth, analysts had expected the index to rise to 49 points

Exports fell behind the German economy contracted in the fourth quarter

ecline in exports led to contraction German GDP in the fourth quarter of last year overturned a positive impact due to the high domestic demand and highlighted the vulnerability of Europe's biggest economy weakened its neighbors in the euro zone

 

The data confirmed adjusted for seasonal changes of the German Federal Statistics Office earlier preliminary estimates showed that GDP shrank 0.6% in the last three months of last year compared to the previous quarter.

That was the biggest decline since shrinking economy 4.1% in the beginning of 2009 and the second contraction since the recession in the period from 2008 to 2009, and reduced foreign trade GDP 0.8 percentage points, while Zadeh domestic demand 0.2 percentage points, and exports fell 2% in the fourth quarter while imports fell 0.6%

German Chancellor calls on the European Parliament to adopt the budget in 2014 and 2020

Called German Chancellor "Angela Merkel" the European Parliament for ratification of the 2014 budget and 2020 for the European Union, which was negotiated in early Feb. when deputies threatened to Europeans by resorting to the veto.
Merkel said - according to the channel "France 24" news on Thursday, she is aware of the difficult discussions with Parliament but want to emphasize that without agreement within the Council of Europe will not be there at all the basis of the decision of the parliament.
She described responsible German agreement on the EU budget as "good" for competitiveness, growth and job creation, is good news for the future of Europe.

It should be noted that the entry into force of the draft budget subject to approval by the European Parliament, where he is scheduled to be voted upon in July

 Mentions that European leaders reached after a sharp debate, on Feb. 8, an agreement on the bloc's draft budget for the period 2014 2020, but that the agreement was met with sharp criticism by members of the European Parliament.
The spokesmen all masses in the European Parliament have described the draft budget as "unacceptable", as defined European leaders spending total by 960 billion euros, after talks that lasted about 24 hours resulted in an agreement on the budget Tqhevah for the years 2014-2020, where The decline for the first time in the history of the European Union.

Spain collected another $ 5.3 billion easily

Spain was able to raise four billion euros (5.34 billion dollars) at a reasonable cost in another sign of growing investor confidence in the government's handling of its financial affairs.

The Treasury Department sold today, Tuesday, worth 3.1 billion euros of treasury bills for the nine months amounted to 1.14% dimensions.

And also sold treasury bills for three months compared to 886 million euros at an interest rate of 0.42%, compared to 0.44% at an auction of the same class on Jan. 22.


And Spanish borrowing costs fell in recent months with calm fears of the country to protest a financial rescue plan.

Demand was five times the supply of Treasury bills for three months and 2.3 times for the new treasury bills.

The country has a second recession in three years and the unemployment rate reached 26%