eur news

The Euro remained range bound in early trade today after yesterday's powerful rise.  The pair has been consolidating since Ben Bernanke's relatively dovish comments slammed the dollar.  With little data to generate strong interest the pair looks to loiter around current levels before seeking further direction.  Next week holds a boat full of inflation data for the Euro Zone as well as the important Ifo survey.  Italian industrial orders and sales all reported stronger than anticipated, with monthly orders outperforming expectations at -0.9%, but down from the previous month's 7.0% revision.  Sales were up 3.3%, beating expectations of 1.0% and last month's 1.8% drop.  The data had little effect.  EUR/USD could see a change after the FOMC minutes for the June 28-29 meeting is released, if it differs substantially from Bernanke's indicati on that the Fed expects US inflation to ease in the coming months.  As of 8:30 GMT EUR/USD traded at 1.2600, up marginally from the 1.2598 price at the New York close.

European stocks extended on Thursday the gains seen in the previous session thanks in large part to Bernanke's comments.  The FTSE Eurofirst 300 rose 0.4% to 1,304.95 with the Xetra Dax in Frankfurt up 0.6% to 5,570.05 and the CAC-40 in Paris 0.6% higher at 4,873.09.  Roche rose 2.5% to SFr233.40 after it beat expectations with a 37% jump in first-half net income to SFr4.54bn, helped by strong growth in cancer drugs and government’s stockpiling flu treatment Tamiflu due to bird flu worries.  The Swiss pharmaceuticals group said it now expected to build core earnings per share by more than sales in 2006.  Nokia is due to report a sharp jump in earnings per share later today, boosted by strong demand in emerging markets.  The numbers are due at 10:00 GMT.  The stock rose 1.5% to €15.80.  EADS, the beleaguered aerospace group with an 80% stake in plane maker Airbus, climbed 3% to €21.29.  Sandvik fell 2.6% to SKr75 as the speciality steel and tool maker narrowly missed expectations with a SKr2.70bn second quarter pretax profit, up from SKr2.24bn a year earlier.  Fellow Swedish engineering group Atlas Copco, which has also been benefiting from being a supplier to the minng and metals industry, eased 2.5% to SKr176.50.

Benchmark 10 year German Bunds yields were up one basis point to 3.990% as prices slipped to 100.060.

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