Evening report jan 08

The dollar rose against the euro on Thursday, recovering some ground made after steep US job losses in the private sector, as some traders thought the dollar's slide the previous day was too sharp.The dollar's rebound was helped by its gains versus the Australian dollar after a shocking slump in home building approvals reinforced the case for further cuts in interest rates for the country to avoid recession.The European single currency nudged back toward the day's lows after data showed a sharper-than-expected drop in economic sentiment across the region last month.The European Commission on Thursday said its economic sentiment indicator for the euro zone fell 7.8 points to 67.1 in December, the lowest reading since the index was launched in 1985. German trade balance report for November is due at 2.00am ET. Trade surplus is seen at EUR16.4 billion, the same as in October. At the same time, the Statistics Estonia is expected to reveal the inflation report for December and for the full year. The British pound was mixed against major currencies as traders awaited an interest-rate decision by the Bank of England's rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee .the yen extended its Asian session's uptrend against other major currencies as a drop in global stock prices prompted investors to reduce holdings of higher-yielding assets funded in Japan. The yen jumped to new multi-week highs against the euro and the franc, 6-day high against the dollar and a 2-day high against the yen.