Forex news for US trading on May 19, 2017
- Current White House official is 'significant person of interest' in Russia probe - WaPo
- Canada March retail sales 0.7% vs. +0.3% expected
- Canada April consumer price index 1.6% y/y vs 1.7% expected
- Fed's Bullard: Data since March FOMC has been relatively weak
- Fed's Bullard: Sees Q2 growth rebound but not enough to lift above 2%
- CFTC Commitments of Traders: Second week of big shifts
- Toronto listings jump 47%, sales fall
- Fed's Williams: Main risks to the US economy are outside of US
- Baker Hughes US oil rig count 720 vs 712 prior
- NY Fed nowcast GDP estimate +2.3% vs +1.9% prior
- Fitch affirms Brazil at BB with a negative outlook
- OPEC told US to likely raise production by 1mbpd this year
- May advance eurozone consumer confidence -3.3 vs -3.0 expected
- ECB's Coeure: Monetary policy can not be used as insurance against labour market risks
Markets
- Gold up $8 to $1255
- S&P 500 up 16 points to 2382
- US 10 year yields flat at 2.23%
- WTI crude up $1.02 to $50.36
- EUR leads, USD lags
The US dollar slowly wilted in New York trade on Friday, especially against the euro and Canadian dollar.
One of the reasons for weakness were the comments from Bullard. He's the first Fed official to acknowledge the obvious -- that data has been disappointing and a June Fed hike might not be the best idea. The dollar was slow to react because he's such a dove but the comments weighed.
EUR/USD struggled ahead of 1.12 for hours then finally broke through and touched a high of 1.1212 before finishing at the figure. It capped a huge week for the euro, which has been on the march from 1.06 at the time of the first round of the French election.
Cable finished above 1.30 to help cement its hold on a new range. The mystery flash crash yesterday was completely erased but it couldn't break above Thursday's high.
USD/CAD sank in large part due to the 2% climb in oil prices as WTI rose above $50. Weak Canadian data and worries about housing were brushed off ahead of a long weekend in Canada. Bids at 1.3500 held, but just barely.
USD/JPY spent the entire day chopping in the 111.00 to 111.70 range. It tried both sides a few times but continued to run into sellers and finishes at 111.25. A downtick in stocks and USD/JPY came late in the day on the Washington Post story and surely the weekend (and week ahead) will be all about the latest political bombshells.
Have a great weekend.
