Today’s Economic events
Following yesterday’s FOMC meeting where interest rates were left unchanged and the dovish tone in the Fed, the US Dollar weakened across the board. The Yen and the commodity risk currencies gained into yesterday’s close. The Asian markets opened today with the Nikkei225 falling -0.22% while the Shanghai composite gained 1.22%. USD/JPY is down -0.83% for the day but not before posting session lows to 110.76. At the time of writing, USD/JPY recovered strongly trading at 111.75.
AUD/USD posted a 7-month high today testing session highs above 0.7645 before easing back lower. At the time of writing, AUDUSD was up 0.57%. The gains came as the Australian unemployment rate fell to 5.80% against forecasts of 6.0%. The monthly employment change, however, remained weak but highlighted the volatility in the Australian labor market.
NZD/USD is up 0.80% led by a weaker dollar. Yesterday, after the FOMC release, New Zealand quarterly GDP numbers showed a surprise 0.90% increase, beating forecasts of 0.70%, keeping the Kiwi well supported. NZD/USD is currently trading at $0.6811.
In Europe, the Euro continued to post gains against the Dollar. EUR/USD gained 0.74% for the day as prices tested highs above 1.13 before retreating lower. Eurozone inflation data was mixed with the headline CPI falling more than expected to -0.20% while the core CPI increased modestly by 0.80%, above expectations of 0.70%.
The Swiss National Bank’s quarterly monetary policy assessment saw the benchmark 3-month LIBOR rate staying unchanged at -0.75%. However, the SNB’s policy statement continued to reflect on the Swiss Franc being overvalued. Switzerland producer prices index released earlier fell -0.60% below forecasts of 0.20%. While EUR/CHF was muted, USD/CHF fell sharply losing -0.96% at the time of writing, currently trading at 0.968.
