[B]Market Review[/B] - 27/02/2014 [I]23:16GMT[/I]
[B]Dollar pares gains after mixed U.S. economic reports[/B]
The greenback backed off from session highs against other euro and pound on Thursday as data showed the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose more than expected, while a separate report said U.S. orders for long lasting manufactured goods fell less than expected in January. Fed Chair Yellen’s prepared testimony to senate panel on Thursday was identical to testimony delivered to house of representatives on Feb 11.
U.S. Labor Department said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits rose by 14,000 to 348,000 from the previous week’s total of 334,000. Market had expected a decrease of 1,000.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department reported that durable goods orders declined by a seasonally adjusted 1% last month, compared to expectations for a 1.7% drop, while core durable goods orders, excluding volatile transportation items, rose 1.1% in January, the largest increase since May, confounding forecasts for a 0.3% decline.
During the day, although the single currency recovered to 1.3696 in Asia after Wednesday’s sharp decline from 1.3757 to 1.3662, active cross-selling in euro on risk aversion due to rising geo-political tensions in Ukraine capped intra-day gain there and knocked price down to 1.3643 in European morning. Euro recovered to 1.3687 in New York morning on dollar’s broad-based softness after release of mixed U.S. economic data before easing, the pair later rose to 1.3727 b4 easing.
Versus the Japanese yen, dollar edged lower after meeting renewed selling at 102.44 in Asia and then tanked to 101.72 in European morning on active cross-buying in yen versus other major currencies. Later, investors bought back the greenback to 102.21 in New York morning on short-covering and then traded in a choppy fashion for rest of the session.
Cable traded in a mixed tone on Thursday. Despite early retreat from Asian high of 1.6683 to 1.6617 in European morning on risk aversion due to geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine, price staged a rebound to 1.6699 in New York morning on active cross-buying in sterling together with dollar’s broad-based softness before moving sideways in thin New York afternoon.
In other news, Fed Chair Yellen said later in the day, ‘since my appearance before last committee some data has been softer; hard to say how much due to weather; we will be attentive to signals on whether recovery is progressing in line with expectations.’
[B]Data to be release on Friday:[/B]
Japan manufacturing PMI, jobless rate, National CPI, Toyko CPI, industrial production, retail sales, housing starts, construction orders, UK Gfk consumer confidence, France PPI, Swiss KOF indicator, Italy unemployment rate, EU unemployment rate and CPI, Canada GDP, U.S. GDP, personal consumption, core PCE, pending home sales and U. of Michigan consumer confidence.