• The euro rose for a third consecutive day on Thursday after breaking through a key technical level when a flurry of European business surveys pointed to a strengthening growth outlook for the region.
The euro EUR=EBS was up 0.2 percent on the day at $1.1850 against the dollar and not far from a one-month high of $1.1862 set last week in a holiday-shortened week.
The dollar .DXY edged 0.1 percent lower against a broad trade-weighted basket of currencies on Thursday to 93.15 after falling 0.8 percent in the previous session, its biggest daily percentage fall since June.
• U.S. President Donald Trump gave a bullish Thanksgiving address to troops overseas on Thursday, hailing progress in Afghanistan and against ISIS, and telling them they were fighting for “something real,” including a stock market at record highs and his promised “big, beautiful fat tax cuts.”
• Lawyers for Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, have told Trump’s legal team they can no longer discuss a probe into Russian meddling in the U.S. election, indicating Flynn may be cooperating with the investigation, the New York Times reported on Thursday.
• European Central Bank policymakers broadly agreed last month on extending their asset purchase scheme but a decision to keep the bond buys open-ended appeared to generate fiercer debate, minutes of the meeting released on Thursday showed.
Having to reconcile rapid economic growth with anemic inflation, the ECB opted last month to halve its asset purchases while extending them by nine months, hoping that gentler though longer stimulus would still keep growth strong enough to generate inflation.
But minutes of the debate at the Oct. 26 policy meeting suggest policymakers were far from unanimous, with some keen to signal a clear end to the ECB’s lavish asset purchases and others arguing for a change in emphasis as a precursor to their eventual end. The euro zone’s central bank already has over 2.2 trillion euros worth of assets on its balance sheet.
• U.S. crude hit a two-year high in thin trade on Thursday as the shutdown of a major crude pipeline from Canada and a draw on fuel inventories pointed to a tightening market, despite rising output from U.S. producers.
West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was up 54 cents at $58.56 per barrel by 2:00 p.m. EST (1900 GMT), close to a two-year peak of $58.58 touched earlier in the session.
Brent crude LCOc1 settled at $63.55 per barrel, 23 cents above its previous close.
• Trading volumes were thin because of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States.
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