Forex: Thursday’s review

The euro rose against the dollar, demonstrating the first gain for the week, which was associated with falling yields on Spanish and Italian government bonds, which is a signal that the banking crisis of Cyprus may be restrained.

The strengthening of the euro contributed to a safe return to work after the Bank of Cyprus to exercise greater control over the movement of bank capital.

We add that the growth of the European currency also helped the weak U.S. data. According to the U.S. Department of Labor report, the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits in the week of March 17-23, increased by 16, 000 and with the seasonally adjusted to 357 000. This is higher than the forecast of economists, who expected that the number of applications was 340,000. The number of initial claims is an indicator of layoffs. The number of initial claims for unemployment benefits last week, March 10-16, was revised to 341,000 from 334 00. Published data are probably a sign that the labor market is to some extent lost its momentum.

In addition, the data would be submitted and the U.S. Commerce Department, which showed that the GDP grew at an annual rate of 0.4% in the fourth quarter compared to the previously reported 0.1% growth. The Ministry of Labour has emphasized that economic activity in the U.S. in the last three months of 2012 increased at a faster pace than previously estimated. But despite the upward revision, GDP growth rates were still lower than estimates of economists who had expected an increase of 0.5%. GDP growth will provide strong business expenses, indicating that companies are intensifying, despite the uncertainty in Washington. Despite the growth in the last quarter of 2012, GDP growth is the weakest level since the beginning of the recovery in the second half of 2009. The economy so far has been growing for 14 consecutive quarters, and for all of last year's GDP grew by 2.2%. But, at the same time, there are signs that the economy in 2013 sat down with the building - good signs coming from the housing market, which shows further improvement, while the unemployment rate is falling.

The British pound rose against the dollar amid mixed statistics. Activity in the UK service sector grew in January at the fastest pace since August. Index of services the UK in January rose by 0.3% compared to the previous month and by 0.8% compared with the same period last year. Increase of activity in the service sector contributed business services, and financial and government services. Another report showed that house prices in the UK continued to rise in March. According to one of the nation's largest mortgage lenders, increase the availability of credit, together with the limited supply of housing will increase prices compared to the same period of the previous year for the first time in more than 12 months. House price index in March Nationwide unchanged compared to February, but rose by 0.8% compared to March 2012. This is the first annual increase since February last year, when the index rose by 0.9%.