U.S. home sales preview - Nomura

Ross J Burland FXStreet

Analysts at Nomura offered a preview of the final U.S.s data for the week in existing home sales.

Key Quotes:

"It appears that some snowstorms in January delayed home
closings—as existing home sales are counted at contract closings—leading to a drop-off in sales in February. However, we saw a partial rebound in sales in March, and we expect to see a more complete rebound in April as weather conditions have, for the most part, been favorable for activity over the last couple of months.

The pending home sales index, which should lead existing home sales by a couple of months, increased in both February and March, suggesting that we are likely to see a continued increase in existing home
sales in April.

As such, we forecast a 1.3% increase in existing home sales in April to an annualized 5400k (Consensus: 5400k). We believe the tight supply of homes available for sale will constrain home sales to some extent in the near-to-medium term, and should lead to increased construction of new homes."

Author

Ross J Burland

FXStreet

Ross J Burland, born in England, UK, is a sportsman at heart. He played Rugby and Judo for his county, Kent and the South East of England Rugby team.

EUR/USD deflates to fresh lows, targets 1.1600

The selling pressure on EUR/USD now gathers extra pace, prompting the pair to hit fresh multi-week lows in the 1.1625-1.1620 band on Friday. The continuation of the downward bias comes in response to further gains in the US Dollar as market participants continue to assess the mixed release of US Nonfarm Payrolls in December.

GBP/USD breaks below 1.3400, challenges the 200-day SMA

GBP/USD remains under heavy fire and retreats for the fourth consecutive day on Friday. Indeed, Cable suffers the strong performance of the Greenback, intensified post-mixed NFP, and trades at shouting distance from its critical 200-day SMA near 1.3380.

Gold flirts with yearly tops around $4,500

Gold keeps its positive bias on Friday, adding to Thursday’s advance and challenging yearly highs in the $4,500 region per troy ounce. The risk-off sentiment favours the yellow metal despite the firmer tone in the Greenback and rising US Treasury yields.