The euro is trading at 1.1390 at the moment. The low has traded at 1.1310 while the high has traded at 1.1395. After selling off to touch the low of the day, the euro has rallied back to trade at the high. French Consumer Spending beat expectations to register 0.6% while French Preliminary CPI was also better than expected with 0.7% recorded. Spanish Flash CPI was worse than expected registering -0.8%. German Unemployment Change is 0K which is worse than expected and is basically flat. European CPI Flash Estimate met expectations with -0.1% while European Core CPI Flash Estimate is slightly better than expected with 1.0% registered. Italian Preliminary CPI is better than expected posting 0.2%. The euro rally was in full flow through the release of the earlier data. However, once the European inflation figures were released later, the rally has met resistance at the current daily high. Investor will now be looking ahead to the US jobs report scheduled for release tomorrow. This report will shed some light on the progress of the US economy where the jobs picture has been one of the better performing sectors. With the recent dovish comments made by Fed Chair Janet Yellen, the dollar may remain under pressure in the near term unless the jobs report is exceptionally better than expected. Overall, I expect the jobs data to have little influence in causing the Fed to raise rates at any point within the next 3 months at least. We shall see if that opinion is realized.
The British pound is trading at 1.4403 at this writing. Sterling has traded at a low of 1.4325 while the high has traded at 1.4426. There has been a host of UK economic data released today. During the Asian session, UK Gfk Consumer Confidence beat expectations to register 0 (flat) when -1 was anticipated. The UK Current Account is -32.7 billion pounds which is less than expected. UK Final GDP beat expectations to record 0.6% while Net Lending to Individuals is lower than expected with 4.9 billion pounds. UK Index of Services and UK M4 Money Supply were both better than expected with each registering 0.9% while both UK Mortgage Approvals and UK Revised Business Investment met expectations posting 74K and -2.0% respectively. Cable has managed to recover most of the gains it had made earlier in the week after the pound sold off yesterday versus the US dollar. Investors will remain vigilant eyeing the European manufacturing data and US jobs report out tomorrow for the next major data releases that are sure to impact the currency markets.
The Japanese yen is trading 112.25 at present. The USD/JPY has traded at a low of 112.15 while the high has traded at 112.67. Japanese Housing Starts were better than expected by a healthy margin registering 7.8% when -2.2% was anticipated. This has encouraged more support for the yen. Investors will be looking forward to the release of the Tankan Manufacturing and Non-Manufacturing Indexes that are scheduled for tomorrow with the Japanese Manufacturing PMI data supporting.
AUD/USD is trading at 0.7699 with the low trading at 0.7635 and the high trading at 0.7705.
USD/CAD is trading at 1.2928 with the low trading at 1.2925 and the high trading at 1.3010.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This information has been prepared to provide you with general information only. It is not intended to take the place of professional advice and you should not take action on specific issues in reliance on this information.