Holiday For American Investors - 2.11.2012

The US Jobless Claims statistics surpassed all the bravest expectations of economists: October figure was +171 K that is significantly exceeding the consensus +125. The unemployment rate increased by 0,1% to 7,9%, entirely according the forecasts. Those confident figures led to the greenback strengthening. The most significant movement was observed in USD/JPY: quotes leapt by more than 30 points higher than the previous peak at 80.37. In the technical review on October 31, we noted "sharp uptrend, formed in the end of September," and that "any price retreat will now be seen as a buying opportunity to refresh the local maximum at 80.37 and it also may move to 80.80". The current quote is 80.62. There was a similar movement observed for EUR/USD: the pair has broken the important support level at 1.2885, now losing 0.66%. Lowering in Euro led to Gold downfall which is exceeding 1%. And perhaps the most obvious reaction to the strong data accelerated the growth in futures on the U.S. stock indexes.

USD/JPY, 4-hours chart