(eToro Blog) US markets edged higher during the past week, as headlines in Europe were offset by robust earnings and mixed economic data.  The technical breakouts on the major indexes, along with upward pointing momentum were met with weekend profit taking.

On Open book, positioning was mixed with slightly

The Canadian dollar was rallying for a third week against the US dollar and the Japanese yen on a back of surging commodity prices. Commodities jumped after the US Federal Reserve announced its intention to keep interest rates low for a prolonged time, leading to weakness of the US currency. The currency was down against the euro for the second we

The Swiss franc rose against the US dollar amid speculations that Greece is struggling to persuade creditors into forgiving part of the nation’s debt. The currency was falling against the euro and the yen on prospects for Swiss central bank’s intervention, but closed almost unchanged.

George Saravelos, a foreign-exchange strategist at Deutsche Bank

The New Zealand dollar closed higher versus its US counterpart as nation’s trade balance posted an unexpected surplus last month. The currency closed lower against the euro and the Japanese yen.

New Zealand’s trade balance posted a surplus of NZ$338 million in December after showing a deficit of NZ$307 million. Forecasters promised a deficit of

(eToro Blog) Wall Street declined today on the lower than expected print of the fourth quarter GDP. The U.S. economy grew at 2.8% in Q4 2011, lower than the analyst expectations of growth of 3.0%. Consumer spending rose 2%, up from 1.7% in the previous quarter. However government spending fell with a 12.5% drop in

(eToro Blog) The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis on behalf of the U.S. Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy grew 2.8% in the last quarter of 2011, an improvement over the previous quarter’s lackluster growth of 1.8% but falling short of the consensus estimate of 3.0% growth. According to the r

Euro is managing to hold to most gains made earlier today, thanks to a bit of hope out of Greece, and disappointing economic data. However, some of the euro’s early gains have been pared, and risk aversion could overpower the 17-nation currency, and send it lower.

The situation is quite volatile right now, with conflicting data. US economic data