The snapshot of the strongest and weakest currencies as NA traders enter for the day
The JPY currency pairs are all moving lower in trading today. The GBPJPY is the weakest of the bunch (and the biggest mover in trading today - 0.48% change from yesterday). The USDJPY is lower by -0.38%. The currency that is the weakest of the majors is the GBP. It is lower vs all the major currency pairs.
Looking at the changes and volatility (chart below), all the JPY pairs are trading at the lows as NY traders enter for the day. However, note in the bottom chart below, all the major pair's low to high trading ranges are still well short of the 22 day averages (about a month of trading). So trading volatility is light compared to the month long average.
The EURUSD range is only 33 pips vs an average of 88 pips, the USDCHF is only 23 pips vs 73 pips, the NZDUSD at only 19 pips (!)vs a 65 pip average. Yes activity is light but there is room to roam if given a push.
Is there anything that might give the currencies a jump start?
- Spot gold is up about $6 to 1263.76 and trading near the highs for the day at 1265.57.
- WTI crude is up a few pennies ($+0.07) at $49.46. Not a lot going there. The range is about $0.60 today
- US yields were little changed yesterday and are little changed today. 2 year 1.350%, unchanged. 5 year 1.813%, up 0.3 bp. 10 year 2.258%, up 0.5 bp, 30 year 2.838%, up 0.5 bp.
- European 10 year note yields are equally as quiet. Germany, unchanged, France unchanged. UK up 1 bp. Italy, up 0.7 bp. Spain down -3 bps....
- US pre-market stocks have negative signs. The Dow has been up 10 straight days but the Dow futures are down -18 points. The S&P made a record close yesterday. The future are down -3 points currently. The Nasdaq futures are lower by -6.25 points.
On the economic calendar, there is not a lot of inspiration with the JOLTS job openings (5700 vs 5666 last) at 10 AM ET/1400 GMT. The IBD/Tipp economic optimism index will also be released at 10 AM ET (50.6 vs 50.2 last).
With not much going on, maybe we look for something technically to give us some modest trading potential. Let me take a look and see.....