The U.S. Dollar is slightly down but in mostly tight ranges as a week characterized by few risk events outside of the U.S. enters its conclusion.
Overview
Without much in terms of exciting releases, it is worth pointing out that last week’s Jobless Claims came in higher than expected at 231K over 212K expected, a sign to further establish that labor is slowing down some, and perhaps the Fed can use as an indication that loose monetary down the line is appropriate if the trend holds. Applications for benefits were at the highest since August.
Naturally, treasury yield levels are also going down. At the time of writing, the FX markets did seem to want to punish the Buck some. This is also being aided by improved economic activity in China. In terms of what is left to watch for the week, we have a few items in the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment tomorrow at 10 AM, U.K. Gross Domestic Product, as well as minutes from the last European Central Bank meeting. Bank of England’s meeting earlier resulted in just dovish commentary doing almost nothing to Sterling. Today, we will hear from Mexico’s Banxico as they announce their monetary policy decision at 2 PM.
What to Watch Today…
- The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Friday 10 AM
- Monex USA Online is always open.
MXN ⇑
The Mexican Peso should have a busy second half of the day as the central bank’s decision will be closely watched. Banxico could indeed move markets in a big way if it cuts once more to indicate a willingness and need to stimulate, or if they explain away staying put this time around and leaving rates untouched. The latter has a chance of occurring with today’s release of the Consumer Price Index for April showing a stubborn inflationary pace. The annual average now stands at 4.37%. With MXN leading Emerging-Market currencies, this could overall be influential to those other financial decisionmakers looking into making things more accommodative.
EUR ⇑
The Euro has climbed by almost 1.0% since the start of the month after numbers in the U.S. started to show that the economic picture may be losing some of its rosiness. Additionally, the world seems to be looking ahead to recovery, with even troublesome China demonstrating some ability to spark growth. Next week, it will be a packed moment to digest all that is happening in the Euro-zone as inflation as well as GDP take center stage mid-week.
