EUR/USD


Yeterday's Close:1.1626 High:1.1755 0Low:1.1622

Resistance Levels:1.1660/70, 1.1740/50 1.1820/30
Support Levels:1.1610/20 ,1.1570/80,1.1530/40

Late Thursday in New York, the euro was down 0.3 percent to $1.1626.
Analysts said Euro/dollar failed to break higher yesterday, and were watching for the downside to $1.1535. The latter still marks the major confirmation level to break for $1.1140, holding below $1.1740/1.1780 will help to keep the focus on the downside as a start to a larger swing on consolidation to the $1.09-1.10 area. Any recovery through the $1.1725-80 area increases risk for exhaustive rally to $1.930 plus.

USD/JPY


Yestrday's Close:108.74 High:108.87 Low:107.99

Resistance Levels:109.20/30 ,109.80/90, 110.10/20
Support Levels:107.70/80, 107.20/30, 106.70/80

Against the yen ,the dollar rose 0.4 percent to 108.72 yen, rallying from three-year lows hit on Wednesday.

The yen's strength is not justified given overall economic fundamentals, which show the U.S. economy is stronger relative to that of Japan, a senior Japanese Finance Ministry official said on Thursday.
"It is strange for the yen to strengthen based on overall fundamentals," Hiroshi Watanabe, head of the MOF's International Bureau, told reporters.
But he added that recent movements in the currency market were in a relatively tight range.
Watanabe also said that currency intervention over the past month would not be of a record scale as seen in previous months.
In late September, the MOF said it had conducted yen-selling intervention via U.S. monetary authorities to stem the yen's rise.
Tokyo was also seen intervening in the past few days, according to market sources.
The MOF will disclose the latest monthly intervention data on Friday.

USD/CHF


Yesterday's Close:1.3332 High:1.3335 Low:1.3176

Resistance Levels:1.3320/30 , 1.3380/90, 1.3430/40
Support Levels:1.3220/30, 1.3170/80, 1.3080/90,

Three-month Swiss franc money market futures dipped on Thursday to discount in higher interest rates after upbeat Swiss data pointed towards a recovery in the country's recession-hit economy early next year.
Futures priced in market rates of 0.30 percent by December, rising to 0.50 percent by March and 0.78 percent by June. Three-month francs are currently trading at around 0.25 percent, matching the Swiss National Bank's (SNB) target.
Dealers said the market speculated the SNB was likely to raise key interest rates towards the end of March as the pick-up in the economy gathers pace.

Hopes the economy could start to pull out of the blocks early in 2004 were fanned on Wednesday when the KOF think tank's leading indicator showed a sharp rise in September.
The indicator points to the likely performance of the economy in six to nine months' time.

Ahead of the data, the dollar firmed to 1.3335 francs from 1.3270 late on Wednesday,before closing at 1.3330 francs, up 0.1 percent on the day.
The euro rose a touch to 1.5528 francs from levels around 1.5510.

GBP/USD


Yesterday's Close:1.6954 High:1.7072 Low:1.6951

Resistance Levels:1.7020/30, 1.7070/80 ,1.7120/30
Support Levels:1.6930/50, 1.6890/00, 1.6810/20

Sterling neared recent five-year highs versus the dollar and six-month highs versus the euro on Thursday on heavy expectations of a UK rate rise next week, but news of a surge in U.S. growth later curbed the pound's gains.
Minutes of the Bank of England's October monetary-setting meeting last week fuelled the rate rise view, and sterling rose further after the U.S. Federal Reserve left rates unchanged at 1.0 percent this week, compared with official UK rates of 3.5 percent.
But news on Thursday of an unexpected 7.2 percent rise in annual U.S. GDP growth in the third quarter took the froth off sterling's rally.

The pound was trading at $1.6955 at close, slightly lower on the day and over a cent below five-year highs set on Wednesday.
It was at 68.56 per euro against Wednesday's six-month highs of 68.49.

Sterling eased from three-month highs set on its trade- weighted index on Wednesday.
UK data on Thursday was bang in line with expectations.
The GfK consumer confidence index gave a reading of minus three in October, compared with minus three in September.
Thirty-seven of 43 economists polled expect a 25 basis point rise in interest rates on November 6, when the Bank of England next makes a policy decision.

The Nationwide building society publishes its monthly housing review at 0700 GMT on Friday, with the strength of the UK housing market a key issue for UK monetary policy-makers.