Euro remains steady as ECB left rates unchanged at 1.00% and said it will extend its unlimited loan offerings into 2011. That include seven-day and one-month funding at fixed rates until at least January, as well as three-month loans in October, November and December. In addition, ECB raised growth forecasts for 2010 from 1.0% to 1.6%. Growth projection for 2011 was raised from 1.2% to 1.4%. Inflation is expected to be 1.5-1.7% in 2010 and 1.2-2.2% in 2011.

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In what seemingly is a contradiction, Europe is proving that you can grow by shrinking.  If you don’t believe that’s possible, look no further than the EU GDP figures reported this morning.  GDP figures came in showing growth of 1.9% vs. an ex

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The euro is maintaining its gains in forex trading on the currency market today. The ECB announced that it is keeping interest rates steady for now, and forex traders expect Jean Claude Trichet to announce that liquidity measures will remain in effect through the end of the year.

U.S. dollar weakness is as much to blame as euro strength, though. Economic news out of the U.S. recently has not been of the kind to help strengthen the greenback on the currency market, and forex traders have been anxious to go elsewhere.

It will be interesting to see how EUR/USD does after the release of more U.S.

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The recovery that emerging markets (their economies and financial markets) have staged since the lows of 2008 is impressive. In most corners of the financial markets, all of the losses have been erased, and securities/currencies are trading only slightly below there pre-credit crisis levels. Even compared to twelve months ago, in 2009, the performance of emerging market currencies holds up well. In the year-to-date, however, most of these currencies have appreciated only slightly, thanks to a particularly weak month of August.

The MSCI emerging market stock index is currently down 2.5% since the start of the year.

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