EUR/USD jumped today as the economic data from the United States was better than market participants have expected. The reports from Europe also surprised traders in a good way for the most part. The major negative event was the increase of Spanish unemployment to the record high of 26% (event A on the chart), but that did not prevent the rally of the currency pair.
Initial jobless claims were at the seasonally adjusted level of 330k last week, demonstrating a small decrease from the previous week’s 335k. Forecasts were pessimistic and promised an increase to 359k. (Event B on the chart.)
Leading indicators rose 0.5% in December, in line with analysts’ predictions of 0.4%. The November reading was revised upwardly to 0.0% from -0.2%. (Event C on the chart.)
Crude oil inventories increased by 2.8 million barrels from the last week from the week before, beating the forecast of 1.9 million, and are well above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year. Crude oil inventories decreased by 1.7 million barrels but remained well above the upper limit of the average range. (Event D on the chart.)
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