Forex news for US trading on May 5, 2016:
- US initial jobless claims 274k vs 260k exp
- Fed's Kaplan: Wants firmer GDP before advocating rate hike
- Fed's Lockhart: 'On the fence' on possibility of June hike
- Mexican central bank leaves rates unchanged at 3.75%, as expected
- Fed's Williams: We should have some rate hike this year
- Fed's Bullard: There are uncertainties over Fed and Market expectations for the path of rates
- Abe: Some rapid and speculative moves have been seen in forex markets recently
- Canadian March building permits -7.0% vs -4.8% expected
- Infograph: A look at the major trends in the US employment
Markets:
- Gold down $2 to $1277
- WTI crude oil up $0.53 to $44.32 after touching $46.07
- S&P 500 flat at 2050
- US 10-year yields down 3.6 bps to 1.74%
- AUD leads, CHF lags
It was more a day of consolidation than anything else. The euro was one mover as it slid down to 1.1400 but the bulk of the 85 pip decline was in European trading.
The Swiss franc was a laggard as USD/CHF caught a bid early in Europe at 0.9582 and sustained it to 0.9684. There was no particular driver behind the franc declines. Technicals may have played a role as EUR/CHF broke above the April and March highs to the best levels since mid-February at 1.1049.
USD/JPY dipped down to 106.77 early in US trading but quickly ripped back to 102.25 and then 107.49 in a brief spurt higher. Fed officials continues to mull rate hikes but it's unlikely that anyone was listening to the cast of characters that were on the docket today.
The commodity currencies finished as the top performers but that wasn't the case in New York hours. They peaked early in the session and spend the last 6 hours sliding and the AUD, CAD and NZD are poised to finish the day virtually unchanged versus USD.
