Home > XE Currency Blog > XE Currency Blog - Market Analysis & Forex News
The dollar continued to trade on the soft side. EUR-USD rose to a 22-day high of 1.3905, making this the fifth consecutive higher high on the daily chart. The pair subsequently dipped to 1.3881 before rebounding toward 1.3900 once more. EU's Gettinger said that there is no reason for panic over Russian energy supplies. Read more
USD-JPY recovered from a three-week low. The symbiotic relationship between the yen and stock markets continued, with Japanese stocks once again exacerbated by the strength of the yen. The Nikkei was dove over 2.5% in what has been the worst week of the Tokyo exchange since June. Read more
The dollar was mixed in N.Y. trade on Thursday, losing ground to the euro, yen and CHF, holding steady against sterling, and posting modest gains versus the CAD. Jobless claims data were the lowest in years, while import prices crept up in March. The tech heavy NASDAQ dragged Wall Street sharply lower, with the major indices giving up all of Wednesday's post-FOMC minute gains. Read more
The USD saw fresh lows against the EUR, JPY, AUD, and other currencies, extending declines seen in the wake of the FOMC minutes yesterday. EUR-USD logged a 17-day high of 1.3875, USD-JPY made a three-week low of 101.42, AUD-USD hit a fresh four-month of 0.9462, and Cable made a two-month peak of 1.6620. Read more
The USD came under pressure against the AUD, which rallied on a stellar Australian jobs report, the JPY, which gained on hawkish sounding BoJ-speak, and the EUR, which extended to a 17-day high of 1.3870 in the early Asia session before settling under 1.3850. Read more
The dollar remained under pressure in N.Y. on Wednesday, with EUR-USD spending a good bit of time over the 1.3800 level. USD-JPY slipped to 101.75, though avoided stops reported under the overnight low of 101.55. There was little data to guide markets, though the FOMC minutes later took the dollar to new session lows, as the Fed jettisoned its jobless target, and sounded more dovish overall. Read more
Earlier this week, Japan voted to maintain their current interest rate and asset purchase policy. Contained within their statement was an assessment of Japan's current economic environment. In this post, I'll look at the data specifically mentioned in the BOJ's assessment of Japan's economy which highlights the continued slow upward slog of Japanese growth. Here are the salient points: Exports have recently leveled off more or less. Read more
The commodity-bloc currencies saw fresh highs before settling, while the dollar and euro consolidated, and the yen softened. EUR-USD dipped to a low of 1.3780 during the London AM and subsequently recovered to near net unchanged levels around 1.3800 after ECB's Weidmann said that there is only a limited risk of deflationary spiral. Read more
The AUD rose to a new high on data, and the yen softened during Tokyo trade after extending gains during the post-Europe New York session yesterday. The yen's pronounced strength over the last few days, which accelerated yesterday, weighted heavily on Japanese stock markets today, which conspicuously underperformed an otherwise bullish day across the Asia-Pacific region. Read more
Above are two charts of Conference Board's leading index (top chart) and coincident index (bottom chart). If the LEI's are to be believed, the EU economy should be taking off at this point. But the coincident index is barely moving. And the annual rate of GDP growth has barely turned positive: So -- why hasn't growth taken off? The answer lies in the components of the LEIs: 37.5% of the index is comprised of money supply growth. Read more
 and coincident index (bottom chart). If the LEI's are to be believed, the EU economy should be taking off at this point. But the coincident index is barely moving. And the annual rate of GDP growth has barely turned positive:
So -- why hasn't growth taken off?
The answer lies in the components of the LEIs:
37.5% of the index is comprised of money supply growth.&p[images][0]=http://xecommunityassets.s3.amazonaws.com/EU1.png){kind=link}