US dollar was the top performer
The US dollar led the way this week, despite the US imposing sanctions on China. The big driver was the FOMC meeting and Powell leaving the impression that the plan is to keep on hiking at a pace of four hikes per year until they get a reason not to.
Despite some of the turmoil in Europe and Italy in particular, the Swiss franc was the weekly laggard, dropping nearly 2%.
Here's the tally:
On the month, the big story for me is that the moves were very big at all. The top performer was the Canadian dollar but until today's 0.9%, even USDCAD was completely flat on the month.
The only mover at all on the month was the yen, which fell 2.25%.
A look at the CAD/JPY monthly chart shows a dip before climbing to the best levels since February. That breakout occurred today as the Canadian dollar got a big lift on GDP data and the rally in crude. Note, however, that Canadian oil is still trading at a $35 discount to WTI because of transportation bottlenecks.
