EUR/USD Rises as Manufacturing ISM Grows

February 2nd, 2009

EUR/USD advanced today after the weekly opening gap and even rose above the Friday’s close level. Some of the fundamental reports in U.S. were slightly better than the traders have expected, so the currency markets reacted with the growing high-yielders. EUR/USD is currently trading near 1.2838.

Personal income decreased by 0.2% in December after falling by 0.4% in November. Personal spending declined by 1% in December following 0.8% drop in November. The forecasts for the today’s report were at 0.4% and 0.9% drops respectively.

Construction spending fell by 1.4% in December compared to the month of November after decreasing by 1.2% a month before (revised down from 0.6% decline).

Manufacturing ISM index (PMI) rose from 32.9% (revised up from 32.4%) to 35.6% in January. The analysts expected it to decline to 32.0% last month.