Date: Friday 16 Jul 2010
A successful Spanish bond auction and worse than expected US data pushed the euro past $1.29 for the first time in over two months, while sterling rallied as risk appetite grew.Spain, at the heart of the sovereign debt crisis these past few months, managed to get away a €3bn auction of 15-year government bonds. Italy, Germany and Portugal did the same Wednesday.
Concerns about the health of the US economy increasd after the regional manufacturing indexes in New
Wholesale prices fell a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in June, according to the Commerce Department. It had been expected to fall 0.1% in June after dropping 0.3% in May.
On the positive side, the Department of Labor’s weekly jobless claims fell 29,000 to a seasonally adjusted 429,000 last week, beating expectations of a smaller drop to 450,000.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase’s forecast-beating second quarter earnings convinced investors to take on more risk. The bank said a lower provision for credit losses was behind an increase in earnings per share to $1.09 from just 28 cents a year earlier. Analysts were looking for about 68 cents.
That was enough to get the pound to a 2½ month high against the greenback, while NTT’s £2.1bn acquisition of UK-listed Dimension Data deal had sterling up against the yen for a time. 
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