Forex news for North American trade on January 18, 2019:
- China said to offer path to eliminate US trade imbalance, US skeptical
- US January prelim U Mich consumer sentiment 90.7 vs 96.8 expected
- Fed's Williams: Fed needs 'prudence, patience and good judgement'
- Williams Q&A: Uncertainty in economy has risen dramatically
- Canada December CPI +2.0% y/y vs +1.7% expected
- Fed's Daly: Leaning towards pausing on rate hikes for a while
- Trump-Kim summit to take place near the end of February
- Baker Hughes US oil rig count 852 vs 873 prior
- GDP Q4 Nowcast boosted to 2.57% vs 2.48% a week ago
- Fed's Harker: High level economic data look really good
Markets:
- Gold down $11 to $1281
- WTI crude up $1.62 to $53.69
- US 10-year yields up 3.2 bps to 2.78%
- S&P 500 up 34 points to 2670
- USD leads, GBP lags
The US dollar finished out the week on a strong note as cable gave back all of Thursday's gain.
More signs of progress on a US-China trade deal boosted risk assets with USD/JPY climbing nearly a half-cent on the day to 109.72. The pair started US trading near 109.40 and climbed to 109.89 before giving back some of the gains.
Cable was the big mover on steady, consistent selling down to 1.2868 after briefly touching 1.3000 yesterday. There was no news to drive the selling but the market is concerned that May will offer something on Monday that doesn't do enough to get a deal across the finish line.
EUR/USD was higher early in US trading at hit 1.1410 but it sagged afterwards as the dollar rose. Part of the dollar's gains were on talk of China buying much more from the US. EUR/USD sagged down to 1.1365.
AUD/USD didn't benefit from the positive risk trade as it fell to 0.7169 from 0.7190. The loonie also failed to benefit from oil or the strong CPI report. The thinking on the inflation data was that it was a one-time adjustment to air fares.
