Forex news for New York trading Friday 8 May 2015:
- April 2015 US non farm payrolls 223k vs 224k exp
- Canadian April employment -19.7K vs -5K expected
- April 2015 Canadian housing starts 181.8 vs 182.0k exp
- September Fed rate hike probability falls after non-farm payrolls
- March 2015 US wholesale inventories 0.1% vs 0.3% exp m/m
- SNB's Jordan: Swiss franc overvalued, will continue to look at FX market
- ECB's Constancio expects low rates to boost growth and raise inflation
- Greece will make next payments easily says eurozone official
- Baker Hughes US rig count 894 vs 905 prior
- CME: Forex exchange volume up 50% vs. a year ago
- Gold up $4 to $1189
- WTI crude up 44-cents to $59.37
- US 10-year yields down 4 bps to 2.14%
- German 10-year yields down 4 bps to 0.55%
- S&P 500 up 28 points to 2116
- GBP leads, CHF lags on the day
- On the week, GBP leads, NZD lags
Non-farm payrolls was close-enough to expectations that it didn't raise concerns about economic weakness while remaining weak enough that the Fed won't raise rates any time soon. That's the perfect combination for stocks and they roared Friday.
For FX the picture wasn't so clear. Fed hike expectations being pushed out a bit further is dollar negative and that was the initial reaction but aside from a 40 pip fall in USD/JPY, it didn't stick.
EUR/USD jumped up to 1.1275 and tried to get higher a few times but repeatedly fell back to the 1.1200 pre-NFP level, where it closed.
The most-impressive thing about cable today was how quickly the buyers jumped on the dips. The election was good news but the ability to hold most of the gains was critical. A couple falls to 1.5350 were picked up and the pound rebounded to 1.5450.
The Canadian dollar was all over the place. The market went in the wrong direction on NFP/employment data as the US dollar slid broadly. The low was 1.2040 but that was a gift as it rallied a cent from there. Later, a messy market in oil led to some chops in the 1.2140 to 1.2070 range.
AUD/USD was also choppy and trendless. The US range was 0.7875 to 0.7970 and it was messy throughout.
Have a great weekend!
