Pound sterling weaker as UK retail sales falls below expectations
Key Notes:
- Swiss trade balance 3.74bn vs. 2.59bn
- Germany PPI m/m 0.0% vs. -0.1%; PPI y/y -1.3% vs. -1.3%
- FOMC Member Williams speech
- UK Retail sales m/m 0.1% vs. 0.4%; Core retail sales m/m 0.4% vs. 0.4%
- UK Retail sales y/y 4.2% vs. 4.4%; Core retail sales y/y 4.3% vs. 4.3%
- Canada wholesale sales m/m 1.3% vs. 1.0%
- Weekly US unemployment claims 277k vs. 272k
Later
- US Existing home sales
- Philly Fed manufacturing index
The currency markets opened today on a mixed note after the FOMC meeting minutes from the late US session yesterday. Most of the Asian risk commodity currencies closed the day yesterday with strong gains. Today’s markets were a bit more subdued with most of the Asian session seeing a flat market. NZDUSD was unchanged at the time of writing but the AUDUSD was weaker in today’s session posting session lows to 0.7285 before trimming some of the declines. USDJPY was trading flat for the most part after the Yen strengthened late yesterday. With lack of any major news out of the Asian session, the markets were mostly quiet.
The European trading session saw the German PPI data which stayed flat for the month. The Euro was moderately stronger across the board including the Greenback EURUSD continued its upward momentum after the currency briefly fell to session lows to 1.1112 before posting strong gains. EURUSD was up 0.51% at the time of writing. The British Pound was weaker this morning due to the lackluster retail sales print which was weaker at 0.1% for the month. On an annual basis, UK retail sales grew at a moderate pace of 4.2% on the headline and 4.3% meeting estimates on the core retail sales. GBPUSD was weak in today’s trading session losing -0.19% at the time of writing. The currency fell to session lows of 1.5609 but managed to trim some of its losses to trade back near 1.565.
Crude Oil prices posted strong losses yesterday after a surprise build in US inventories. The commodity fell to the lows of 2009 as the EIA lowered its forecasts for Crude oil prices. The Energy Information Administration noted that Crude oil prices for 2015 could average $49 per barrel, while estimate that Crude Oil could average $54 per barrel in 2016. Both new estimates were revised lower by $6 and $8 per barrel respectively.
The US trading session saw the release of the weekly unemployment claims which rose more than expected to 277k above estimates of 271k for the week ending August 15th. The weekly jobless claims, marks a fourth consecutive week of rising more than expected, but remains within the levels to not derail any of the Fed’s plans for rate hikes. Canadian wholesale sales for the month grew at a pace of 1.3%, beating estimates of 1.0%. The USDCAD was trading weaker since this morning after briefly hitting session highs to 1.3174 earlier in the day. USDCAD was down -0.13% at the time of writing. Later in the evening, other US economic data includes the existing home sales data and the Philly Fed manufacturing Index.
