After an American session had shown a strong recovery in equities and currencies leading rival the dollar, the decision of Moody's to cut France's debt rating had impact immediately on the euro, and to a lesser extent on other currencies.
However, this impact seems to be forgotten in the European session on Tuesday. The single currency strengthened slowly but surely, and its next target is 1.2835, which might slow down before continuing its upward trend.
The British pound sterling offers a similar outlook, but its short-term uptrend seems to be firmer than the euro.
Meanwhile, the yen rallied against the dollar and the currency rose against most of its 16 major counterparts as Bank of Japan refrained from adding to stimulus measures. Shinzo Abe, favored to displace prime minister of Japan at the election, has supported unlimited easing.
In Switzerland, a trade balance with a surplus expected to be over 2.36 bln francs is 2.82bln francs.
The data that should be taken into consideration during the American session conserves housing starts in U.S. It unexpectedly climbed to a four-year high, indicating further improvement in U.S. residential construction. Start rose 3.6% to 894K annual rate. It is the fastest since July 2008.