The euro leapt back to life early this morning, climbing to levels not seen in over two months. After spending most of yesterday in a very narrow range, the common currency sped upward after Standard & Poor’s cut the sovereign debt rating of Japan. The run faded later though, as technical resistance was met near the 61.8% fib retracement of the move down from November to early January coincided with the November 22 top. Increasing the selling pressure on the euro versus the dollar was a much better-than-expected Pending Home Sales figure out of the US which came out at more than double the rate expected. More so than dollar strength though, much of what created the brief sell-off was simple profit taking on short-term positions and it appears that the recent uptrend is still intact for this pair. Dan Cook, Chicago