By CountingPips.com
The European common currency reached a fresh two-month high versus the US dollar in Forex trading as investors risk optimism has continued on a data-filled day today. The dollar has fallen to other risk currencies such as the Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar and Canadian dollar while the American currency has managed to trade at higher levels 
versus the British pound, Swiss franc and the Japanese yen.
The euro touched the 1.2700 exchange rate for the first time since May 12th today before retreating a bit lower from the highpoint. The European currency continues to rally versus the dollar from the four-year low point reached on June 7 and from a more recent low point of 1.2151 reached on June 29th.
Helping to boost the risk optimism in the market today was a report by the IMF that raised their growth projections for 2010. The IMF forecasts that global growth will reach 4.6% in 2010 after a previous estimate that global growth would register 4.2% for the year. Although the IMF projects higher growth, it cautions that the European sovereign debt crisis presented risks to this outlook.
Asia will continue to be the driver of growth as the IMF forecasts Asia to rise by over 7% this year while the US is forecasted to grow by 3.3%, Japan by 2.4% and the euro area by 1.0%. Also, the United Kingdom is forecasted to grow at 1.2% in 2010 while Canada is expected to increase by 3.6%.
Other economic reports released today included a much more than expected rise in Australian employment for the month of June, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Australia’s economy added approximately 45,000 workers in June following a decline of approximately 23,000 workers in May and topped forecasts expecting a gain of 15,000 jobs. This news had a positive impact and boosted the Australian dollar in early forex trading action.
The European Central Bank and the Bank of England had their interest rate announcements today and both held their rates at their current levels as widely expected at 1.00% and 0.50%, respectively.
Economic news out of the U.S. today showed that weekly jobless claims decreased by more than expected in the week that ended on July 3rd, according to a release by the U.S. Labor Department. New jobless claims fell by 21,000 workers to a total of 454,000 unemployed workers while the 4-week moving average of unemployed workers decreased by 1,250 workers from the previous week to a total of 466,000.
Market forecasts were expecting jobless claims to come down to 460,000 workers following the prior week’s 475,000 claims.
Workers seeking continuing claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending June 26th also decreased for the week. Continuing claims dropped by 224,000 workers to a total of 4,413,000 unemployed workers while the four week moving average of continuing claims dropped by 18,750 workers to a total of 4,554,000.
Forex Chart: EUR/USD Daily –The euro/dollar pair increasing higher in Forex trading today and touching the 1.2700 exchange rate for the first time in two months. The daily chart below shows this pair is trading right at the downward trendline that has held since December 09 and presents the euro/dollar with a challenge to its recent rally from off it 4-year lows in early June.
