Home > XE Currency Blog > XE Currency Blog - Market Analysis & Forex News
The USD was softer in quiet, relatively low volume trade. News that S&P downgraded its rating of Russia and an Interfax report that Moscow is ready for "unbiased and constructive" talks with the U.S. didn't cast much impact in the main currencies. Read more
It has been a quiet session in pre-European Asian trade, partly due to Australian and New Zealand being closed for the ANZAC Day public holiday. USD-JPY continued to gently oscillate in the low-to-mid 102s, EUR-USD flat-lined around 1.3830-35, and AUD-USD edged modestly higher, to the 0.9275-80 area. Read more
The dollar reacted to rumors of an "emergency" press conference from Putin, taking the greenback higher versus the euro and lower against the yen. Yields dipped, and equities sold off as well, though after a denial of such a presser, markets reversed themselves to a degree. Read more
The euro rose on a strong German Ifo business sentiment reading only to be knocked lower by ECB Draghi's hammer, which took the form of a warning that a worsening inflation outlook would be a trigger for QE. EUR-USD dropped back to near net unchanged levels around 1.3820 after peaking at 1.3343 in the immediate wake of the Ifo release. Read more
The Conference Board uses four statistics for its coincident US economic index. In order of importance, these are: total employees (51%), real income less transfer payments (22%), industrial production (14%) and manufacturing and trade sales (11%). While the US recovery has been -- and continues to be -- weak, all of these metrics are still pointing to modest expansion. Read more
The NZD was the sole mover in pre-Europe trade in Asia, rallying following a 25 bp rate hike by the RBNZ to 3.0%. The tightening was expected, but still elicited kiwi buying. NZD-USD logged a nine-day peak of 0.8636. USD-JPY didn't do much, opening in Tokyo around 102.45-50, dipping to a low of 102.24 and then settling around 102.35. Read more
Back in December, I wrote a post here at XE.oom saying that "Interest rates will negatively impact US housing in 2014." http://community.xe.com/forum/xe-market-analysis/rising-interest-rates-will-negatively-impact-us-housing-2014 While building permits, the specific metric I cited in my post, have not turned negative YoY at all in the first three months of 2014, every other US housing metric is now significantly negative. Housing starts are -59,000 YoY and -150,000 from their November 2013 peak. New home sales are also -59,000 YoY and -86,000 from their peak in January of this year. Existing home sales are -370,000 YoY and -790,000 from their peak in July 2014. This morning we had the worst new home sales report since October 2012. So let's take a look at both existing and new home sales for the US. Existing home sales are less important for the economy, but constitute about 90% of the total market. Read more
The dollar started the N.Y. Wednesday session under modest pressure, though eventually recovered some ground against the euro and CHF. As has been the case this week, ranges remained narrow for the major dollar pairings. USD-JPY found support near the week's low, hovering near 102.20-40 after struggling over 102.50 for several sessions. Read more
The rebounded after wobbling in the wake of the below-forecast French PMI, with subsequent releases and the pan-Eurozone data superseding market expectations (in both services and manufacturing surveys in the case of the Eurozone). The EUR-USD high so far has been 1.3853, and the Apr-17 peak at 1.3866 looks likely to be tested. Read more
A dive in the AUD has been the main event following sub-expectations inflation data out of Australia. The other main data release was the flash estimate of the HSBC-Markit China PMI, which came in as expected at 48.3, though its sub-50.0 reading was still used as an excuse to trigger a second wave of AUD selling and trimming of longs across Asia-Pacific equity markets, which largely gave back intraday gains as a consequence. Read more
, real income less transfer payments (22%), industrial production (14%) and manufacturing and trade sales (11%). While the US recovery has been -- and continues to be -- weak, all of these metrics are still pointing to modest expansion.&p[images][0]=http://xecommunityassets.s3.amazonaws.com/Employees.jpg){kind=link}