Euro Rises On Positive German, Chinese Data

Published January 17, 2012 8:54PM (EST)

NEW YORK (AP) — The euro rose against the dollar Tuesday after the Germany and China released positive economic data. Traders also bought euros after borrowing rates in Spain dropped following a successful bond auction.

The euro rose to $1.2722 in late trading Tuesday from $1.2665 late Monday.

Germany said its investor sentiment index rose in January, a sign that economic activity in the country should stabilize in the next month.

China said Tuesday that growth slowed in the fourth quarter, but the slowdown was not as big as analysts had expected.

Spain auctioned $6.21 billion in short-term debt, a sign that investor sentiment was not hurt by last week's downgrade of the country's credit rating. Last week, traders were worried that it would be harder for European countries to raise funds after Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of France, Austria, Italy and Spain on Friday. Those worries pushed the euro to a 17-month low of $1.2623 on Friday.

The dollar fell against most other currencies Tuesday. The British pound rose to $1.5327 from $1.5322. The dollar fell to 0.9506 Swiss franc from 0.9545 and to 1.0159 Canadian dollar from 1.0179.

However, the dollar rose to 76.82 Japanese yen from 76.76.


By Salon Staff

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