Optimism spread across U.S. and European markets on Friday amid hopes EU leaders will be able to reach a plan to ease the European debt crisis at next week’s EU summit, while strong earnings from U.S. companies further supported confidence, as several U.S. companies reported profits that topped estimates, which encouraged traders to target higher yielding assets; leading equities and commodities higher.
As for FOREX markets, traders targeted higher yielding assets, as risk appetite spread across markets, where the U.S. dollar fell sharply against a basket of major currencies on Friday.
Stocks in the United States were higher by opening on Friday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by nearly 1.80% to trade around 11,747, while the S&P 500 index was up by nearly 1.65% to trade around 1235. European stock indexes were sharply higher before closing on Friday, where FTSE 100 was up by nearly 1.90% to trade at 5486 and the DAX was up by nearly 3.20% to trade around 5952.
The U.S. dollar fell against a basket of major currencies on Friday, where the U.S. dollar index was trading at 76.39, compared with the opening level at 76.94. The Euro gained strongly against the Dollar, where the EUR/USD pair traded around $1.3887, compared with the opening level at $1.3794, the British Pound also received strong momentum against the Dollar, where the GBP/USD pair traded around $1.5945, compared with the opening level at $1.5800, and the U.S. dollar fell sharply against the Japanese Yen, leading the pair to set a new record low, where the USD/JPY pair was trading at 76.12, compared with the opening level at 76.87.
Gold prices rebounded to the upside on Friday to trade now around $1635 an ounce and crude oil prices also gained to trade around $88 a barrel.
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