The AUD is the strongest. The CHF is the weakest.

As North American traders enter for the day the snapshot of the strongest and weakest currencies is showing the AUD is the strongest, while the CHF is the weakest. Australia CPI came in stronger than expected (although core was as expected). Nevertheless, the AUD shot up on the news and is not getting any headwinds from stocks this morning as US pre-market indices are pushing higher on the back of Apple and Boeing beat. The USD is more tilted to the downside along with the safe haven CHF (and JPY).

The AUD is the strongest. The CHF is the weakest.

The ranges and changes for the day show low voltility in the EURUSD, USDJPY, USDCHF and NZDUSD with each below 35 pips. The USDCAD, AUDUSD and GBPUSD have higher ranges but are still somewhat contained.

Percentage changes of the major US currencies verse each other

In other markets at the start of the day, the snapshot shows:

  • Spot gold near unchanged levels of $1311.40
  • WTI crude oil futuresof $.55 or 1.03% at $53.86

In premarket trading for US equities the major indices are higher on the back of better earnings from Apple and Boeing.

  • Dow is up 250 points
  • S&P indexes up 13.5 points
  • NASDAQ indexes up 64 points

European shares are mixed in trading today:

  • German DAX -0.27%
  • France's CAC, +0.73%
  • UK's FTSE, +1.70%
  • Spain's Ibex, -0.52%
  • Italy's FTSE MIB, +0.24%

In the US debt market yields are trading slightly higher:

US yield curve

European benchmark 10 year yields are mostly lower:

European ten-year benchmark yields

On the economic calendar:

  • mortgage applications fell -3% after a - 2.7% decline last week
  • US ADP employment change for January will be released at 8:15 AM/1315 GMT. The estimate is for 181K versus 271K last month
  • US pending home saleswe released at 10 AM with expectations for a 0.5% gain after a -0.7% decline in November
  • the Department of Energy will release inventory levels. The private data numbers released yesterday showed the following changes:
Private energy inventory data showed crude oil inventories of 2.098M barrels.

The expectations for crude oil inventories are for a gain of 3.150M barrels today.

  • China/US trade talks begin today
  • The FOMC decision will be released at 2PM ET/1900 GMT with no change expected. The market will be focused on whether the Fed slows down rate increases and/or slows down balance sheet contraction. The Fed chair Jerome Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 PM ET