- US stocks end a solid week with strong gains. NASDAQ leads the charge.
- EURJPY gets close to 2008 high at 169.96. Break above and trading at 32-year-high
- Crude oil settles at $83.85
- Key event and releases for the trading week starting April 29
- Baker Hughes oil rigs down to 506 vs 511 last week
- European indices close higher for the day/week. UK FTSE 100 closes at a record level.
- Citigroup now sees 100 basis points of cuts this year from July
- Atlanta Fed GDPNow estimate for Q2 growth 3.9%
- University of Michigan April consumer sentiment (final) 77.2 versus 77.9 estimate
- WH Brainard: Work to bring costs down are ongoing
- Kickstart the FX trading day for April 26 w/ a technical look at EURUSD, USDJPY and GBPUSD
- US March PCE core inflation 2.8% YoY versus 2.7% expected
- The AUD is the strongest and the JPY is the weakest as the NA session begins
- ForexLive European FX news wrap: Japanese yen volatility ramps up after Ueda presser
The JPY pairs all rose sharply (JPY lower) as JPY selling continued after the BOJ rate decision.
The comments from BOJ Ueda did not strike any fear in traders hearts, after saying that the JPYs fall could lead to higher inflation, but expressed no concerns about its fall.
After, an initial dip soon after the announcement to near 155.00, buyers quickly reentered. The USDJPY is extending to a new session high at 158.292 going into the last minutes of trading today. The high price from 1990 at 160.40 is within reach.
The JPY moved the most vs the AUD with a fall of -1.92%. It fell -1.69% versus a US dollar and -1.59% versus the Canadian dollar.
Looking at the JPY crosses:
- The AUDJPY traded to it's highest level since April 2013
- The EURJPY traded at its highest level since July 2008
- The GBPJPY surpassed its 2015 high, and traded to the highest level since 2008.
- The NZDJPY traded briefly above its 2014 high price and to the highest level since July 2007
- The CHFJPY is trading to its highest level at least going back to 1973.
- The CADJPY traded to its highest level since December 2007.
Looking at the strongest to weakest of the major currencies, the AUD and the USD were the strongest today.
Today in the US session, core PCE for the month March was released and came in better than expectations. After the US GDP yesterday showed core PCE for the first quarter higher than expectations, the fear was for a rise of 0.4 – 0.5%. The actual increase for the month came in 0.3%. The year-on-year stayed unchanged at 2.8% which was 0.1% higher than the 2.7% estimate.
Coming off stronger earnings from Microsoft and Alphabet after the close on Thursday, stocks got another boost. The gains were led by the NASDAQ index which rose over 2% on the day and by 4.23% for the trading week. That was the best week since October 2023. The S&P index rose 1.02% today, and its week gain of 2.67% is good enough for its best performance since October as well.
In the US debt market, yields are ending the day lower but off their lowest levels. Yields are still higher for the trading week:
- 2-year yield 4.995%, -0.3 basis points
- 5-year yield 4.6%, -2.8 basis points
- 10-year yield 4.665%, -4.1 basis points
- 30-year yield 4.776%, -4.3 basis points
For the trading week:
- 2-year yield up 1.0 basis points
- 5-year yield up 1.7 basis points
- 10 year yield up 4.2 basis points
- 30-year yield up 6.4 basis points
in other markets this week:
- Crude oil rose $1.42 or 1.73%.
- Gold fell $-54.06 or -2.26%
- Silver fell $-1.48 or -5.12%
- Bitcoin fell $-1038 or -1.60%
