Forex news for North American trading on January 24, 2019
- US December existing home sales 5.57m vs 5.70m expected
- US Markit January manufacturing PMI flash 55.5 vs 55.0 exp
- US Nov FHFA house price index +0.4% vs +0.5% expected
- Trump says infrastructure will be part of next Tuesday's State of the Union
- World Bank chief economist Romer to leave after row over Chile
- LG to raise price of washers in response to US tarriffs
- US sells $34 billion 5 year notes at a high yield of 2.434%
- Saudi oil minister: Highly unlikely OPEC will change course in June
- Wilbur Ross says China's 2025 technology plan a 'direct threat' to US
- Bank of England distances itself after President's Club expose
- DOE US weekly crude oil inventories -1071K vs -2000K expected
- Germany's Merkel says protectionism not the answer to the world's problems
Markets:
- GBP leads, USD lags
- Gold up $17.55 to $1358
- S&P 500 down 2 points to 2837
- US 10-year yields up 3.5 bps to 2.65%
- WTI crude up $1.47 to $65.94
It's not a pretty picture for the US dollar. It's breaking down on chart after chart.
Today's slump kicked off early in Europe when Steve Mnuchin mused about the benefits of a weak dollar. There were plenty of caveats in his statement that didn't fit with the headline but it didn't matter, the dollar just needed a nudge to go over the edge.
Cable is absolutely soaring and it climbed 220 pips to 1.4217 in the biggest one-day gain since May called the election. The peak came into the London fix and then it consolidated from there.
The euro was on a sizzler as well despite the Draghi risks tomorrow. It rose to a 1.2415 and finished near the highs as it tacked on another 100 pips of gains, most of them in US hours. Draghi has been talking down the euro forever but any hint of a change in communication will send it soaring again tomorrow.
USD/JPY continued to break down and briefly fell below 109 before a 25 pip rebound. It touched the lowest since September in the continuing slide.
The commodity currencies and commodities also took advantage, gaining around 1% across the board. CAD lagged the rest of the group because of NAFTA concerns.
Gold and oil both hit long-term highs.
Overall, it was just a really ugly day for the dollar and there's no obvious catalyst for a turnaround.
