The US data remained robust with initial jobless claims increasing only slightly to 239,000 in the latest week from 234,000 previously which still indicated a strong labour market with layoffs remaining at low levels. There was a small decline in housing starts to an annual rate of 1.25mn from 1.28mn previously while permits rose to 1.29mn from 1.23mn.
There was also a strong reading for the February Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey which increased to 43.3 from 23.6 and the highest reading for over 30 years, although the prices indices declined slightly on the month.
Fed Vice Chair Fischer backed Yellen’s stance on policy with expectations of further increase in rates and markets will continue to monitor comments in order to assess the potential for a rate hike at the March meeting. The dollar pushed higher immediately after the data, but was again unable to gain any traction and the Euro resisted any significant selling. Overall, the Euro rallied to the 1.0680 area as the dollar’s trade-weighted index declined by around 0.60%.
A weaker Dollar: Trump vs. Powell The Dollar continued to lose ground yesterday as the truce between Israel and Iran appeared to continue to hold. There has been a noticeable return to focus upon macro and monetary influences in major currency pairs. Yesterday, Fed Chair Jay Powell provided his semi-annual monetary policy report before the […]
Big Girls Don’t Cry A bond market tantrum and one of the sharpest one day sell offs in Sterling for several years appear to have been catalysed by the Chancellor’s appearance in PMQs yesterday. First: the back story. This Labour government has faced some embarrassment in recent weeks trying to get its welfare bill through […]
Next level EURUSD has managed a relatively smooth ascent to its current levels, around 1.18. That is despite significant resistance levels, most notably around 1.17. A large collection of option strike prices gathered around this key level and the price history of the pair shows us its significance. Sustained closes above this level since last […]