Forexpros – The euro held gains against the yen on Thursday, despite unexpectedly weak U.S. jobless claims data after successful French and Spanish bond auctions lent support to the single currency.
EUR/JPY hit 105.07 during European afternoon trade, the pair’s highest since November 11; the pair subsequently consolidated at 104.86, rising 0.48%.
The pair was likely to find support at 103.32, Wednesday’s low and resistance at 105.55, the high of November 15.
The U.S. Department of Labor said the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance last week rose unexpectedly, climbing above 400,000 for the first time in three weeks.
The euro was boosted earlier, after Spain’s Treasury auctioned the full targeted amount of EUR3.75 billion of government bonds, with yields staying below the critical 7% threshold. The average yield on Spain’s five-year bonds was 5.54%, compared with 4.84% in early November.
Meanwhile, France auctioned EUR4.5 billion of debt, including EUR1.57 billion of 10-year bonds at an average yield of 3.18%, down from 3.22% at a similar auction last month.
The auctions were seen as a major test of investor confidence, coming one day after six major central banks, including the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank cut the cost of emergency dollar funding for European banks in a coordinated action.
But investors remained wary after ECB President Mario Draghi said downside risks to the economic outlook have increased.
In Japan, Finance Minister Jun Azumi said earlier that the government will compile a fourth spending package this fiscal year to help companies cope with the strong yen, but did not provide details on the funding.
Elsewhere, the yen was down against the U.S. dollar with USD/JPY rising 0.19%, to trade at 77.77.
Later in the day, the Institute of Supply Management was to release data on manufacturing activity.
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