Investing.com - The euro moved higher against the U.S. dollar in Asian trade Friday, as global central banks announced a concerted effort to provide fresh dollar loans to debt threatened euro-zone financial institutions.
EUR/USD hit 1.3893 in early Asian trade, the pair’s highest since Monday; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.3882, rising 0.04%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3556, Monday’s low, and resistance at 1.4089, the high of September 9.
Earlier Thursday, the European Central Bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks said they would coordinate an extension of loans to euro-zone banks, in an effort to secure enough cash for them to operate through the end of the year.
The announcement follows reassurances from French and German leaders that they would continue to support Greece’s participation in the European shared currency.
European stocks rallied on the news, with France’s CAC 40 surging 3.27% to 3,045.62, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 2.1% to 5,337.54, and Germany’s DAX advanced 3.15% to end the session at 5,508.24.
Separately Thursday, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced that industrial production rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in August, just above market expectations of a 0.1% gain, and following a 0.9% rise in July.
And the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of Americans filing for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly for the week ending September 9, up by 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 428,000.
Economists had forecast a decline to 410,000 for the week.
Wall Street appeared to shrug off the gloomy labor numbers and instead take its cue from the ECB’s efforts to address European sovereign debt. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.66% to 11,433.20, the Nasdaq Composite Index was lifted 1.34% to 2,607.07, and the S&P 500 climbed 1.72% to close at 1,209.11.
Meanwhile, the euro was lower against both the British pound but up and the Japanese yen, with EUR/GBP down by 0.01% to hit 0.8781, and EUR/JPY falling 0.02% to hit 106.40.
ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet is due to deliver a speech in Poland later Friday after officials, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, meet to discuss an expansion of the euro region’s new bailout fund.