- The US major indices closing higher and near highs for the 3rd day in a row.
- Tomorrow in the US session. What is on the event/release calendar?
- Fed's Bullard: I would support a rate hike at the March meeting and prefer a hike in May
- Crude oil continues the up and down waffle near highs
- Sen. Manchin: Build Back Better Bill is dead
- Atlanta Fed GDPNow estimate for 1Q GDP growth unchanged at 0.1%
- Russia state-affiliated media tweet: Military personnel 'killed' after Ukraine drone strike
- European major indices close higher on the day
- Putin: The US could drag Russia into war with the aim of posing sanctions on Moscow
- US Sec. of State Blinken and Russia For. Minister Lavrov speak: If you don't intend to invade Ukraine, pull back your troops
- Dallas Fed Texas service sector index of general business activity outlook 0.6% in January 2022 from 14.2 last month
- Fed Bostic: Businesses now seeking redundant suppliers which is adding costs
- US construction spending for December 0.2% versus 0.7% estimate
- JOLTS December job openings 10.925M vs 10.562M last month
- US ISM manufacturing for January 57.6 versus 57.4 estimate
- US Markit PMI manufacturing index for January 55.5 versus 55.0 preliminary estimate
- Canada Markit manufacturing PMI for January 56.2 versus 56.5 last month
- Forexlive European FX news wrap: Plenty of data, including tragic German Retail Sales.
- Feds Harker: A 25 basis point hike is warranted in March
- Canada November GDP 0.6% vs 0.4% estimate
- The CHF is the strongest and the USD is the weakest as NA traders enter for the day
The USD is ending the session as the weakest of the majors for the 2nd consecutive day. HOwever, putting things into perspective, the decline has come after a run that saw the dollar index move up 9 of11 trading days to the highest level since June 2020.
The strongest of the currencies today was the NZD and AUD. The Reserve Bank of Australia kept rates unchanged but did say they expect inflation to move sharply higher at least temporarily. The NZD was dragged higher in sympathy.'
Technicals also played a major part in those two currency pairs.
For the NZDUSD, the price moved above its 100 hour moving average in the early European session near 0.6590, and above a downward to open trendline at 0.6623 on the hourly chart. Going into the last hour of trading, the price has moved up to test its 200 hour moving average at 0.66465. There has been some sellers against that level on the first test with the price currently trading at 0.6637. In the new trading day if the price is able to get above the 200 hour moving average, it would open the door for further upside.
For the AUDUSD, it initially moved lower after the RBA rate decision, but then rebounded and started to move back above its 100 hour moving average at 0.7060. Later the 200 hour moving average was broken at 0.7111. The current price is trading up to 0.7125 into the close, with the next target at the 50% midpoint of the move down from the January 13 high. That level comes in at 0.7140.
The NZDUSD moved 1.1% higher on the day while the AUDUSD moved 0.93%.
Another key technical break today occurred in the GBPUSD which was able to move back above its 100 day MA at 1.3514. It is currently trading at 1.3522 into the close.
For the EURUSD, it traded above and below its 200 hour moving average during the North American session at 1.12527, but moved back above the moving average in the last few hours of trading and is trading at 1.12736 at the end of day.
In other markets today:
- Spot gold is trading up four dollars or 0.23% at $1800.80
- Spot silver is trading up $0.18 or 0.79% at $22.64
- WTI crude oil futures are trading at $88.26 up $0.10 on the day
- Bitcoin is trading at $38,779.97. At this time yesterday, the digital currency was trading at $38,458. So not much change in the digital currency over the last 24 hours
the US stock market, the major indices close higher (and near highs for the day) for the third consecutive day.
- Dow industrial average rose 273. 38 points or 0.78% at 35405.25
- S&P rose 30.99 points or 0.69% at 4546.53
- NASDAQ index rose 106.13 points or 0.75% at 14346.01
- Russell 2000 rose 22.28 points or 1.10% at 2050.74.
After the close, Alphabet announce better than expected earnings and revenues and is trading up $214 or 7.78% at 2966.92. They also announced a rare 20:1 stock split.
AMD also announced much better than expected earnings and revenues and also guided higher. It's shares are up around $11 from is closing level at $127.80.
On the other end of the earnings spectrum was PayPal which disappointed both on earnings and revenues and guided lower as well. It's stock is trading at $149.12after closing at $175.80. Ouch.
in the US debt market, yields are closing marginally higher. With the 30 year up 1.4 basis points the biggest mover
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