By Cornelius Luca
New York, May 10 (BridgeNews) - The euro spiked to a three-day high of 89.23 cents after the European Central Bank surprised markets with a 25-basis point cut in its minimum refinancing rate to 4.5%. The unexpected but much-needed monetary easing will likely provide some antidote toward the end of the year to the euro zone economy, which has recently shown consistent signs of weakness. While the rate cut should be supportive for the euro, the single currency still needs to close above the 91.00 cents level to attract medium-term buyers.
* * * Sterling/dollar was also boosted by the ECB move after failing to react to the as-expected Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee 25-basis-point cut of the key interest rate to 5.25%. But the pair remained confined to Wednesday's range. Dollar/Swiss franc trimmed losses after slipping to a three-day low of 1.7288, dollar/Canada remains heavy near the three-day low of 1.5370, while Australian dollar/U.S. dollar is steady after trimming overnight gains at a two-month high of 0.5266. Thursday's domestic event agenda includes speeches by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Treasury Undersecretary-designate for Domestic Finance Peter Fisher, and Fed. Gov. Laurence Meyer.
All eyes will be on euro/dollar's ability to retain its early gains or even remain in positive territory; if not, expect possible sharp sales from disillusioned euro bulls. Dollar/yen remains fairly bullish near an eight-day high of 122.43, with key levels at 122.50 and 122.00.

Current Previous Change Global Global
NY open NY close low high

USD/JPY 122.26 122.14 0.12 122.03 122.43
EUR/USD 0.8831 0.8860 -0.0029 0.8830 0.8923
EUR/JPY 107.99 108.28 -0.29 107.97 108.95
GBP/USD 1.4213 1.4217 -0.0011 1.4213 1.4281
USD/CHF 1.7425 1.7400 0.0025 1.7288 1.7435
USD/CAD 1.5387 1.5376 0.0011 1.5370 1.5409
AUD/USD 0.5235 0.5242 -0.0007 0.5230 0.5266
NZD/USD 0.4244 0.4265 -0.0022 0.4244 0.4273
SP.1 1270.50 12.80 1256.10 1273.30
ND.1 1918.00 42.00 1871.00 1918.00