Euro rises modestly above its trading range

After being stuck in a trading range between $1.40 and $1.43 for a while, the euro finally rose modestly above that range with the December euro futures contract rising to $1.4311 on Friday from $1.4192 a week ago, a gain of 1.19 cents.

Where the euro goes from here is up in the air since we no longer have a solid consensus on what the Fed will do with interest rates, where the overall U.S. economy is headed, or how deep-pocketed the speculators are who have been pushing up the euro.

As far as where speculators think the euro may be headed, euro futures out at March 2009 were only at $1.4323 on Friday, so there isn't exactly a lot of "slam dunk" enthusiasm for betting on an aggressive ongoing upwards trend, so far.

-- Jack Krupansky