Swiss franc keeps firm footing

Swiss franc held near two-week highs on Friday, having powered higher on mounting Middle East tensions, while the U.S. dollar lost steam, putting its rebound this month from a three-month low at risk.

The Swiss currency, traditionally sought in times of heightened geopolitical tension, stayed near two-week highs versus the dollar and euro as unrest spread across the Middle East and North Africa.

Is Canadian Dollar Becoming Safe Currency

The first half of this week wasn’t very good for the Canadian dollar, but the losses were offset in the second half, when the currency surged upward even though the sentiment was favoring safety.

The discouraging macroeconomic data and the strong performance of most other currencies have led to the weakness of the Canadian dollar. Yet on Thursday the loonie, as the Canadian currency is often nicknamed, reversed the trend. The gains erased the losses against some currencies and even allowed to post a weekly gain against others.

Gold flat but dollar drop, Bernanke view underpin

Gold was little changed on Wednesday as the market was underpinned by a dollar drop and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comment that he had no plans to scrap a massive bond-buying program, indicating interest rates will not rise any time soon.

In testimony to Congress, Bernanke suggested U.S. economic conditions were still too weak for the central bank to pull back on its vast monetary stimulus, despite a welcome drop in the jobless rate.

AUD Beats Other Currencies This Week

The Australian dollar rallied against all other most-traded currencies this week without any noticeable opposition as the economic recovery boosted commodity prices and caused Australia’s central bank to revise its growth forecast upwardly.

High Canadian Employment Makes Loonie Strongest Since May 2008

The Canadian dollar reached the highest level against its US counterpart since May 2008 as the employment change in Canada was more than three times higher than the predicted value.

Canadian employment rose for the second consecutive month in January, advancing by 69,000. The economists predicted that Canadian employers would add just 18,000 jobs. At the same time, the unemployment rate increased from 7.6 percent to 7.8 percent as more people searched for work. The Canadian currency was also boosted by the decreasing unemployment in the US, the biggest trading partner of Canada.

China raise rates again after festivities

The HSBC/Markit Economics Chinese Purchasing Managers' Index revealed that among the components in the report input costs increased again and might be an indication of why both retailers and wholesalers raised prices.