EUR/USD lifts above 1.0344 after European PMI data revised higher

The divergence within the wider European economy seems to continue to endorse a trend that has been in place for over a year now and that is the relative outperformance of the Spanish and Italian economies and to endorse that we have data released from both this morning. The December Spanish service sector PMI rose to 57.3, from 53.1. The equivalent revised Italian data was just now released and that was better too, rising in December to 50.7 from a prior reading of 49.2. At the same time the French data has also just been released and that has improved as well, rising to 49.3 from 48.2. That is still below 50 and continues to underpin the divergence between the core and the periphery. The German data has also just been released and that has been revised slightly, to 51.2 from 51. The upshot of all this data has helped to lift European stocks and also help the Euro nudge a little higher versus the dollar. The EUR/USD has now lifted above potential resistance at 1.0343-1.0344. It is currently trading at 1.0351