The US dollar rallied against the majors on higher than expected ISM manufacturing index coming out at 48.6. Bank of Japan quarterly business sentiment survey came out to its lowest in four years at +11.
News and Events:
The US dollar rallied against the majors on higher than expected ISM manufacturing index coming out at 48.6 versus an expected 47.5 and a previous figure of 48.3. EURUSD traded down to 1.5533 and has since rebounded back over 1.5600. Investment banks continue to report Euro outflows in FX and dollar inflows into US equities. Traders will be listening closely as Fed Chairman Bernanke testifies before the Joint Economic Committee.
Bank of Japan quarterly business sentiment survey came out to its lowest in four years at +11 versus +13 expected and +19 in the last quarter of 2007. The market situation does not show support of a comeback of the carry trade as investors expect the USDJPY to remain weak in the near-term.
Today’s Key Issues (time in GMT):
09:30 GBP M4 Money Supply (MoM) FEB F
09:30 GBP M4 Money Supply (YoY) FEB F
09:30 GBP M4 Sterling Lending (BP) FEB F
09:30 GBP Net Consumer Credit FEB 0.9B vs 0.9B
09:30 GBP Net Lending Sec. on Dwellings FEB 7.2B vs 7.4B
09:30 GBP Mortgage Approvals FEB 72K vs 74K
09:30 GBP BSA Mortgage Approvals SA FEB
09:30 GBP PMI Construction MAR 52 vs 52.4
09:30 GBP BoE Housing Equity Withdrawal 4Q �9.5B vs �10.5B
10:00 EUR Euro-Zone PPI (MoM) FEB 0.60% vs 0.80%
10:00 EUR Euro-Zone PPI (YoY) FEB 5.20% vs 4.90%
12:00 USD MBA Mortgage Applications Mar-28
12:30 USD Challenger Job Cuts YoY MAR
13:15 USD ADP Employment Change MAR -40K vs -23K
15:00 USD Factory Orders FEB -0.80% v-2.50%
The Risk Today:
EurUsd First target of 1.5620 hit and the market is ultimately looking at 1.5400 on the bottom of the sideways channel.
GbpUsd heavy under 1.9980 and stalled at the 1.9732 support. Risk remains for a retracement to 1.9970 and 2.0100.
UsdJpy finding strong resistance between 101.80 and 102.16. Next level up is 103.59 while downside risk remains high to 99.00.
UsdChf will find strong resistance at 1.0262 and remains heavy underneath. On the downside, 0.9871 holds firm.
Resistance and Support:
By James Brandt - ACM Advanced Currency Markets, Geneva, Switzerland