General Commentary
USD/JPY soaring as US Data Improves
Last week’s currency trading review
USD/JPY persistently strong US data is helping the Yen pair to fresh multi year highs with February US Nonfarm payrolls beating expectations at 236k vs. 160k forecast and the Unemployment Rate dropping sharply to 7.7% vs. 7.9% previously. The FED has recently linked the QE3 program to the Unemployment rate with 6.5% the figure mentioned as its target.
EUR/USD was able to bounce from 1.3000 to 1.3100 after the ECB was more neutral than forecast at its monthly meeting and President Draghi failed to talk down the single currency. The rally didn’t last long however with the Strong US jobs data the catalyst for further USD buying and pushed the major back under 1.3000.
Forex Economic Data Preview
In the States; On Tuesday, February Retail Sales forecast at 0.5% vs. 0.1% previously. On Thursday, PPI forecast at 0.6% vs. 0.2% previously. Also, Weekly Jobless Claims forecast at 355k vs. 340k previously. On Friday, February CPI forecast at 0.4% vs. 0.0% m/m. Also February Industrial Production forecast at 0.3% vs. -0.1% previously. Preliminary March UoM Consumer sentiment forecast at 78.2 vs. 77.6 previously. We will provide our previews and reviews of these data releases in the daily summary.
In the Eurozone; On Monday, January German Trade Balance forecast at 17.9bn vs. 16.8bn previously. On Wednesday, January EU Industrial Production forecast at -0.1% vs. 0.7% previously. On Friday, February CPI forecast at 1.8% vs. 1.8% previously. Also EU Economic Summit. In the UK; On Tuesday, January Manufacturing Production forecast at 0.1% vs. 1.6% previously. Also January Trade Balance forecast at -8.8bn vs. -8.9bn. We will provide our previews and reviews of these data releases in the daily summary.
In Japan; on Tuesday, BOJ monetary minutes. In Australia; On Wednesday, Westpac March Consumer Sentiment. On Thursday, February Employment Change forecast at 10.7k vs. 10.4k previously. Also Unemployment rate forecast at 5.5% vs. 5.4% previously.
