Tuesday, the Swiss franc rose to multi-day highs against the British pound and the Japanese yen. Meanwhile, the franc bounced back against the US dollar and showed choppy trading against the euro.
Against the US dollar, the Swiss franc gained ground after hitting a low of 1.0223 at 3:00 am ET Tuesday. The franc is currently trading at 1.0181 against the dollar, compared to 1.0197 hit late New York Monday. The next upside target level for the franc is seen around 0.995.
The franc largely bounced between 1.5121 and 1.5107 against the European currency during Tuesday's early deals. The franc is currently trading near yesterday's closing value of 1.5118 against the euro.
Against the British pound, the Swiss franc traded higher during today's early deals. At 5:00 am ET, the franc reached a 4-day high of 1.6625 against the pound with 1.653 seen as the next target level. The pound-franc pair closed Monday's North American session at 1.6772.
UK's manufacturing output remained flat on a monthly basis in October, while economists were looking for an increase of 0.4%, the Office for National Statistics reported today. Annually, output was down 7.8%, smaller than the 9.8% decrease seen in September. However, it was larger than the 7.2% decline expected by economists.
Against the Japanese yen, the Swiss currency extended its Asian session's downtrend during early European deals on Tuesday and touched a 6-day low of 87.07. This may be compared to Monday's closing value of 87.83. On the downside, 86.9 is seen as the next target level.
Japan's current account surplus jumped 42.7% on year to 1.39 trillion yen in October, marking the third straight year-on-year increase, according to preliminary data released today by the Finance Ministry.
In addition, Japan's trade balance came in at 949 billion yen, beating forecasts for an 864.6 billion yen surplus after the 599.2 billion yen surplus a month earlier. The annual increase of 812.4 billion yen was the largest since the series began in 1986.
The Japanese coalition government, led by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, announced its first stimulus package worth 7.2 trillion yen on Tuesday to battle the threats of deflation and a strong currency in the world's second largest economy.
Looking ahead, Germany's Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology is set to issue industrial production data for October at 6:00 am ET. Industrial output is expected to fall 10.2% on a yearly basis, slower than the 12.9% drop in the previous month. Month-on-month, output is forecast to rise 1% compared to the 2.7% decrease in the preceding month.
There are no important economic reports due to be released from the U.S.
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