For the 24 hours to 23:00 GMT, EUR rose 0.73% against the USD and closed at 1.3017, after European Central Bank (ECB) President, Mario Draghi reiterated that the single currency is “irreversible” and said that he remained committed to preserving the “singleness” of monetary policy in the Euro-zone. He added that the economic risks in the Euro-zone remain to the downside and added that economic indicators point to weak growth in the third quarter.
The Euro also rose after Mario Draghi said that the ECB was ready to start buying government debt from nations such as Spain as soon as the necessary conditions are met.
Moreover, in a widely anticipated decision, the ECB left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.75%, a record low for the third straight month.
Meanwhile, the Greek Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras repeated his comments that Greece would ask the ECB for more time to repay its debt and that it wanted more concessions as it negotiated the conditions for the next installment of financial assistance.
In bond auction, Spain sold a total of €3.992 billion ($5.15 billion) of short-term and medium-term government bonds, maturing in October 2014, October 2015 and July 2017, at the upper end of its €3 billion to €4 billion target range. The average yield on the new three-year benchmark debt rose to 3.956% from 3.845% at the prior auction on September 20.
In economic news, German construction purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose to 48.6 in September, from 47.8 in August.
In the Asian session, at GMT0300, the pair is trading at 1.3018, with the EUR trading steady from yesterday’s close.
The pair is expected to find support at 1.2948, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 1.2878. The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 1.3060, and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 1.3102.
Trading trends in the pair today are expected to be determined by the release of the US non-farm payrolls and the unemployment rate data scheduled to be released later today.
The currency pair is trading above its 20 Hr and 50 Hr moving averages.