The Forex daily summary for 9 April features the following key notes:
- Australia AIG construction index 50.1 vs. 439 previously
- German industrial production m/m 0.2% vs. 0.1%
- Japan preliminary machine tool orders m/m 14.6% vs. 28.9%
- UK Halifax HPI m/m 0.4% vs. 0.1%
- BoE Official Bank rate, unchanged at 0.5%
- Canada building permits m/m -0.9% vs. 3.4%
- Canada NHPI m/m 0.2% vs. 0.1%
- US Weekly unemployment claims 281k vs. 283k
Later
- US wholesale inventories
The US Dollar managed to regain its top position after yesterday’s release of the March FOMC meeting minutes showed that the Fed officials were divided on a rate hike, but seem increasingly confident for a September lift off. The Greenback which was weaker earlier in the day managed to rally and kept up its gains into today’s trading session. At the time of writing, the US Dollar index made an intraday high to 98.62. Noticeably, most of the currencies declined on the release of the minutes with the EURUSD and GBPUSD posting the largest losses against the Greenback.
The Asian trading session did not see any major market moving events and the markets were trading mostly from the previous day’s theme. The Australian dollar was however resilient against the Greenback and quickly regained its lost ground and is seen trading above yesterday’s high near 0.772 ahead of the US trading session open today. The Kiwi dollar was also seen gaining ground against the Greenback erasing yesterday’s losses to trade near 0.76 levels.
The Japanese Yen was seen strengthening against the Greenback as USDJPY failed to keep up its gains near the 120 levels as the pair edged lower back to 119 levels. The reversal from 120 is perhaps indicative of more weakness to come later today.
The European trading session saw the main risk coming from Greece’s payment to the IMF, which the country managed to pay. However, questions still linger on how the country will be able to fund itself towards the end of the month as negotiations go back and forth between Greece and Eurogroup officials.
Fundamentals from Europe include German industrial production which managed to beat estimates rising 0.2%. However, the Euro was seen trading mixed against the Greenback after the currency was seen struggling to lift off from yesterday’s sell off.
The British Pound was the volatile currency today as the Pound fell sharply as UK trade deficit hit a seven month high in February as exports fell reflecting weaker sales to the US. The British Pound dropped across the board only to stabilize after the BoE’s monetary policy saw no change. GBPUSD was trading back in the range and was down to 1.478 before managing to erase some of the losses. The currency is still trading within the range of 1.495 and 1.475.
Gold futures also saw a modest relief rally as the precious metal managed to ease from its lows to 1195.55 and was seen testing the psychological level of $1200.
The US trading session saw the release of the weekly unemployment claims which manages to fall below estimates, rising 281k against expected 283k. Canadian housing data included HPI which managed to rise above estimates but building permits fell -0.9%, below estimates of 3.3%.
