Cues: Focus shifts to US from EU worries; RBI move watched

Moneycontrol Bureau

A shift in focus from eurozone worries to a bettering US economy helped Wall Street end higher by 2%. Jobless claims in the US dropped to a three and a half year low last week that lent to the cheer.

Signs of an improving economy in the US helped equity markets there, and also pulled along European shares to end higher yesterday. The DAX,CAC and FTSE all closed marginally up by half a percent to 1%.

Meanwhile, Asian markets have today opened in the green. Hopefully, this positivism in global markets will rub off on India too today! The Nifty has yesterday closed flat at 4762 points.

Moving over to the currency market, the euro inched slightly higher to 1.30 levels to the dollar. The dollar index is firm above 80 levels.

Crude, however, continued trending down. NYMEX crude slipped to USD 93 levels following eurozone worries and Brent prices too fell to USD 103. Gold is buzzing near its two and a half month low at USD 1570 per ounce. The precious metal has lost 9% in value this month, on track to be the first monthly fall since September, and also the weakest December since 2008.

Back home, all eyes are on RBI