The dollar is climbing against all of its major competitors at the beginning of the new trading week. The move follows the historic agreement reached between Iran and six world powers early Sunday, which halts the progress of the country’s nuclear program.
Iran entered into an agreement that sets significant limits on its nuclear program and begins to address most urgent concerns including its enrichment capabilities, its existing stockpiles of enriched uranium, the number and capabilities of its centrifuges, and its ability to produce weapons-grade plutonium using the Arak reactor.
In return, the P5+1, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany, will provide limited, temporary, targeted and reversible relief to Iran.
The trading week will be shortened due to the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. There will be a number of important economic reports released ahead of the holiday, including housing starts, durable goods orders, consumer sentiment and consumer confidence.
Pending home sales in the U.S. unexpectedly saw a modest decrease in the month of October, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors on Monday, with pending sales falling for the fifth consecutive month.
NAR said its pending home sales index dipped 0.6 percent to 102.1 in October from an upwardly revised 102.7 in September. The modest drop came as a surprise to economists, who had been expecting pending sales to rise by 1.1 percent.
Greece’s Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said that the country will not need a third bailout package as the economy enters an era of recovery after six years of painful recession.
“There will be no need for a new loan package,” he said during a joint press briefing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. “We want to stay true to the current program, as well as its objectives.”
The European Central Bank still has room to reduce interest rates, Governing Council member Ardo Hansson told Bloomberg news agency on Monday.
“The options on rate cuts are still not fully exhausted and there are all kinds of other measures that are still on the table,” said Hansson. “I don’t see us, by any means, running out of our toolkit of things we can draw on,” he added.
The dollar has snapped a 2-day losing streak against the Euro on Monday, rebounding from an early low of $1.3559 to around $1.3495.
Business sentiment among French manufacturers remained unchanged at 98 in November, survey data from the statistical office Insee revealed Monday. The reading was forecast to drop to 97.
The greenback has also bounced back from an early 1-month low of $1.6239 against the pound sterling on Monday, to around $1.6135.
U.K. mortgage approvals declined unexpectedly in October from the previous month, data from British Bankers’ Association revealed Monday. The number of mortgages approved for house purchases declined to 42,808 from 43,182 in September. Economists had forecast approvals to rise to 45,000.
Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said Monday that the economy has been following a path toward achieving the 2 percent price stability target as expected.
“With the prospect of an improvement in the aggregate supply and demand balance and a rise in medium- to long-term inflation expectations, the year-on-year rate of change in the CPI is likely to follow a rising trend,” he said during remarks at an event in Tokyo.
“Looking ahead, a virtuous circle among production, income, and spending is expected to continue, and Japan’s economy is projected to grow, as a trend, at a pace above its potential,” Kuroda noted.
The buck climbed to a 6-month high of Y101.907 against the Japanese Yen Monday morning, but has since eased back to around Y101.680.
