Forex news March 23, 2015 US edition:
- ECB's Draghi says recent data shows growth is gaining momentum
- Weak euro will help return inflation towards target says Draghi
- Fed's Fischer: Rate hike likely warranted before year-end
- Fischer: Data dependency will determine date of hike
- Eurozone consumer confidence -3.7 vs -6.0 expected
- US Feb existing home sales 4.88M vs 4.90M expected
- The ECB's lower bound shall go no lower say Reuters pollsters
- SNB's Moser says the IMF proposal on currency QE is all part of their considerations
- February 2015 US Chicago Fed national activity index -0.11 vs +0.10 exp
- ECB bond buying program on pace
- Tsipras to target tax evasion and corruption in Greek reforms
- S&P 500 down 4 points to 2104
- Gold up $8 to $1191
- WTI crude up 79-cents to $47.36
- US 10-year yields down 2.5 bps to 1.90%
- AUD leads, USD lags
The FOMC statement and forecasts continue to reverberate and that means US dollar selling across the board. Stock market volume was extremely low on Monday but it was lively in FX as the dollar slowly bled lower.
The Australian dollar was at the leading edge of the move throughout the day as it made new highs ahead of the pack. AUD/USD started US trading near 0.7800 and touched as high as 0.7899 late in the day. The China PMI is a major risk in the hours ahead.
EUR/USD generally ignored Draghi but he remained in an optimistic mood. Good Eurozone consumer confidence numbers also helped the cause but the main flourish higher was on Fischer's comments. He talked about a hike before year-end but that's 86% priced into the market and traders are beginning to focus on the other 14%.
USD/JPY struggled to join in the anti-USD trading in New York hours. In the early going, a 6 point rally in the S&P 500 prevented any kind of selling but later losses also didn't challenge the session low at 119.59. There is talk of medium demand at 119.50 with more bids around 119.30 and the 55-dma at 119.08.
USD/CAD was a steady slider in the early part of the day, especially as oil prices reversed higher despite talk of record Saudi production. The pair eventually found some buyers near 1.2500 but nothing to inspire any kind of buyers.
