Forex news for US trading on May 26, 2016:
- April US durable goods orders +3.4% vs +0.5% expected
- US initial jobless claims 268k vs 275k exp
- Trump talks energy policy
- Fed's Powell: Rate hike may be appropriate 'fairly soon'
- Fed's Powell Q&A: Low capital investment largely explained by weak demand
- Kansas City Fed manufacturing index -5 vs -4 prior
- Abe likely to make Japanese consumption tax announcement Monday - Kyodo
- Atlanta Fed GDPNow forecast bumped to 2.9% from 2.5%
- April 2016 US pending home sales 5.1% vs 0.6% exp m/m
- The Saudi Arabian currency might be cracking
- Bullard: Brexit isn't the global event it's being made out to be
Markets:
- JPY leads, GBP lags
- Gold down $4.50 to $1220
- WTI crude oil down 24-cents to $49.32
- S&P 500 float at 2089
- US 10-year yields down 4 bps to 1.83%
EUR/USD hit a session high above 1.12 on the soft durable goods orders details after hitting a session low on the strong headline. Later, stronger pending home sales sapped the gains in a dip back to 1.1170 before a finish at 1.1190.
USD/JPY was the victim of a quick, mysterious 50-pip drop in Asia but it fully recovered at the start of US trading. Then it started to slide again on durable goods orders and later on a strong Treasury auction. Bids at 109.50 held and Powell was a bit hawkish and the pair finished at 109.77.
Cable slid on the GDP reading. The headline hit the estimates but weak exports and investments raised some questions about the rest of the year. GBP/USD slowly slid down to 1.4640 with some stronger selling at the London close and then bounced 30 pips to close out the day.
USD/CAD sank for the second day as oil rose briefly above $50 per barrel. Prices began to sag after hitting $50.21 and finished at $49.32. In turn, USD/CAD rebounded almost a full cent from a low of 1.2911 before finishing at 1.2972.
AUD/USD shook of the soft capex numbers and had also climbed nearly a cent from the session low and up to 0.7243. Offers ahead of the 200-dma capped the run and it slowly retraceted back to 0.7215.
Gold extended its losing streak to 7 consecutive sessions, although it didn't break below yesterday's low of $1217. That's the key short term level.
The Fed's Powell helped to give the US dollar a bit of a lift but messages in favor of a hike were tempered by hints that the hike won't come in June.
