Shares steady, euro under pressure as European Central Bank seen easing next week

“The dollar can still rally, but I don’t think we’re going to see the kind of momentum that we saw at the start of the year against the euro”.

“The biggest factor here is the dollar”, said Hans van Cleef, a senior energy economist at ABN Amro in Amsterdam.

RBA Head of Economic Analysis, Heath, discussed the impact of the terms of trade cycle (the large increase and subsequent fall in commodity prices) over the past decade.

London nickel slid more than 6 percent to its lowest since 2003 and copper fell nearly 3 percent to its cheapest in more than six years. Brent lost 90c, or 2%, to $43.80.

“More and more investors are watching (commodities sell off) and sentiment therefore gets more jittery”. The ECB could increase its 1.1 trillion euro ($1.2 trillion) program of bond purchases or lower its rate on money deposited at the ECB by banks farther into negative territory.

It was given a few help as purchasing manager data showed euro zone business activity picking up at its fastest pace since mid-2011, partly thanks to the currency’s recent weakness. Sources told Reuters that Pfizer was due to secure formal board approval for its acquisition of Allergan for more than US$150 billion, creating the world’s biggest drug maker.

Fears of further militant Islamist attacks lingered in Europe.

Belgian shares fell 0.5% at the open, though they were broadly in line with the overall market and they had largely recovered by 10am GMT.

The European Central Bank is prepared to act promptly to underpin stubbornly low inflation in the Eurozone, providing investors with the strongest hint yet that the central bank will initiate a new round of fresh stimulus measures at its December meeting.

Two-year U.S. Treasury yields are now 130 basis points above two-year German bond yields, with the gap having widened from around 81 basis points in mid-October.

Most major banks have stuck firmly to the view that the euro will fall toward parity with the dollar in the months ahead as the Federal Reserve begins to lift interest rates while the ECB takes the opposite course.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was all but flat, while South Korea’s main index gained 0.2 per cent.

Against a basket of currencies, the US dollar firmed 0.3 percent to 99.83. Japan’s Nikkei was closed for a holiday.

“The euro was under renewed pressure on Friday night as ECB President Draghi said that policymakers would “do what we must to raise inflation as quickly as possible”, Bank of New Zealand senior market strategist Kymberly Martin said in a note.

The single currency support ECONEZ was provided by powerful message reviews in the euro zone, but analysts and dealers were unwilling to foresee any jump before a European Central Bank meeting the following month that is likely to relieve economic policy.

“Increased policy tension is likely to mean that volatility remains elevated”.

The dollar was marginally more steady in trade-in Europe on Friday after hitting its cheapest in over 7 months in moment that is Oriental, a primary strike being repelled by traders with awareness from selections areas.