- Silver falls 10% after another hike in margin requirements
- Gold falls 1%; ends at $1538.50
- US consulting firm sees three ECB hikes before year-end
- US factory orders rise 3% in March; better than expected
- Fed has significant discussion on exit strategy at last FOMC meeting: CNBC
- German interest rates continue to rise; 10-year bund yields edge above Treasuries
- Portugal reaches deal with EU/IMF on 3-year EUR 78 bln bailout loan (they’ll be back to extend it…)
- Geithner: China beginning to move on forex; world wants faster pace
Interest rates and commodities held sway over the dollar today. Rates dominated the morning as rising German yields swept EUR/US up to 1.4890 at the European close. The failure to hold gains and the subsequent sharp decline in metals and oil prompted profit-taking during the afternoon which saw prices ease back to the 1.4815 area. We close pretty much where we left things last night, around 1.4830, a sign of indecision/exhaustion.
USD/JPY closes at the 81.00 level, not far from NY session highs of 81.06. We dipped as low as 80.70 but traders were reluctant to push to aggressively to the downside, mindful of previous BOJ intervention around those levels last March.
GBP was weak on the crosses after poor UK PMI. Cable managed a rally to 1.6545 to squeeze the shorts, however. It slipped back to 1.6465 in afternoon trade before closing at 1.6490.
USD/CHF fell to a record low of 0.8595 this morning amid the late-European bout of dollar sales. It ends at 0.8612.
AUD/USD suffered at the hands of slumping commodities. It fell as low as 1.0838 and ends at 1.0860.