Italy Consumer Confidence down to 96.2 in December from 98.2 in November

Lee Hardman, FX Analyst at the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ notes that the Fed’s decision to also strengthen its forward guidance signalling that its key policy rate will remain unchanged until well after the unemployment rate reaches 6.5% combined with further evidence that the outlook for theUS economy is brightening has helped to reassure investors that a gradual tapering of QE by the Fed is well timed.