On Monday, officials published the US Existing Home Sales for August. Values missed the estimates with a significant margin, coming in at 5.31 million – meaning a 4.8% contraction – with an estimate of 5.51 million. Also, the August figure is far from July’s 5.58 million.
Also worth mentioning about Mondays is FOMC’s member (and President of Atlanta Federal Reserve) Dennis Lockhart’s declaration over the timing of a rate hike. The statement at Buckhead Rotary Club in Atlanta mentioned a likelihood of a rate hike before the year-end.
Coming towards the present, the US dollar has recovered the Asian trade loss (from Monday) yesterday and went further up versus the CHF early in the European sessions, with the Swiss franc reaction at the domestic trade recently released figures. At the moment of writing, USD/CHF had a 0.24% gain heading into new session highs around the 0.9742 value, shaking off the 0.9711 threshold with which was stuck in Asia. The pair went further with gains following the publishing of Swiss trade balance figures which discouraged the CHF’s bulls. Mentioning previously about the domestic trade data, it should be highlighted that it shrank in August according to the FSO (Federal Statistical Office) analysis. The trade surplus went down at a low of 2.87 billion CHF in August, succeeding a downwardly revised 3.58 billion CHF in July.
GBP/USD started the week with on a flimsy tone which went on, pushing the major into yesterday’s session low of 1.5462 although UK’s Finance Minister (George Osborne) mentioned BOE’s (Bank of England) rate hike expectations. At the moment of writing, the pair is lingering around the 1.5469 support line – set by the hourly 100-MA. This level is mainly due to the discussions about the government borrowing, which subdued Osborne’s comments about the approach of the end of the loose monetary policy. According to fresh data, the UK public sector borrowing went up in August towards 11.3 billion GBP, with an estimate of 8.8 billion GBP.
Prices on crude oil had an optimist start on Monday, but seemed to have lost the momentum yesterday but only until a certain point after which it bounced off the session lows and almost recuperated the $46.00 / barrel threshold. Despite the fact that WTI (West Texas Intermediate) barrel bounced off the $45.50 level, the bid sentiment around the greenback still took a harsh toll on USD-denominated assets. Eyes are now on the Chinese economy, as the supply glut seems to gain field again and investors eagerly awaiting the EIA (the US Energy Information Administration) reports on crude stocks set for Wednesday.
