As we being the final session of the week the euro catches a bid against the U.S. dollar after euro zone leaders announced it will allow some of the troubled counties like France, Spain and Portugal to take additional time to lower their respective budget deficits easing some of the burden of austerity.
[caption align="alignright" caption="The EU parliament building in Brussels"] 
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News Brussels meeting that leaders were looking at possible bailout package for Cyprus also help to send the euro higher. The euro zone leaders and International Monetary Fund officials hope to have an outline for the Cyprus bailout by end of the day.
On the other side of the pair the U.S.'s final week's economic data came in mixed with Empire State manufacturing index falling less than expected. Expectations were for the index to fall 8.4 but rather printed and impressive 9.4 only 0.06 off the previous month's 10.
Also released today was the Core Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) the core excludes food and energy which climbed 0.2% for February on top of last month's increase 0.3%.
Consumer Price Inflation also damped sentiment with 0.7% increase compare to analysts' expectations of an increase of 0.5% after the previous month of 0%.
Bottom Line: the news out the euro zone seems positive on the headlines but when market participants really think about and pull the emotion out the news is not all that positive. If these countries need more time to get their house in order it is only going to prolong the issues and make these countries more vulnerable to additional downsides and unforeseen issues.
You can see this reaction in the daily chart of the EUR/USD price action pierced the downward trendline that begun at the beginning of year and rapidly pulled back below the line putting the bears back in charge.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
