The week that will be remembered for its record weekly loss for the US Dollar, triggered by the US FOMC announcing up to $300 Billion to be spent on US Treasuries, ended with a whimper....With Japan out on a holiday, the week came to a close in a subdued manner as the Dollar made minor gains verse the Yen and Euro.
In the EUR/USD pair the dollar was given a sort of reprieve today, at least for a little while, as it got as low as 1.3616 in Asia but ultimately the Dollar strength faded, and EUR/USD ended up back near 1.3650, about 20 pips lower than the opening levels. Against the British Pound, the Greenback fared better, opening near the highs of 1.4520 and gradually dropping below 1.4450. Most traders feel that with the Fed literally printing Dollars and flooding the market, the overall view on the US currency is bearish.
This proved true this week where the Dollar fell for record losses, down 5.4%, the biggest weekly move since the debut of the Euro. The US Dollar Index, which poises the Dollar against a basket of currencies, was down 4.9% this week as well. However, it can be argued that the huge selloff of Dollars in lieu of the Fed announcement was a knee-jerk overreaction, and calmer heads will prevail in the coming weeks.
On brighter Dollar news, the USD/JPY pair has bounced back nicely over the past 12 hours, hitting bottom at 93.54 in NY and getting as high as 94.82 in Asia before leaving the session near 94.60. With the Dollar sagging the jump in commodities has helped both the Aussie and Kiwi Dollars continue a run of three weeks with positive gains....The AUD/USD for example has moved almost 5 big figures so far in March. Tomorrow at 12:00EST Fed Chairman Bernanke will give a speech on the ''Financial Crisis and Community Banking''...should be an interesting one. Have a nice weekend.
Upcoming Economic Data Releases (London Session):
| 3/20/2009 | 7:00 | GE | Producer Prices (MoM) | FEB | -1.20% | -0.20% |
| 3/20/2009 | 7:00 | GE | Producer Prices (YoY) | FEB | 2.00% | 1.30% |
| 3/20/2009 | 10:00 | EC | Euro-Zone Ind. Prod. sa (MoM) | JAN | -2.60% | -4.00% |
| 3/20/2009 | 10:00 | EC | Euro-Zone Ind. Prod. wda (YoY) | JAN | -12.00% | -15.50% |
| 3/20/2009 | 12:30 | CA | New Motor Vehicle Sales MoM | JAN | - - | - - |
| 3/20/2009 | 12:30 | CA | Retail Sales MoM | JAN | -5.40% | - - |
| 3/20/2009 | 12:30 | CA | Retail Sales Less Autos MoM | JAN | -3.20% | - - |
| 3/20/2009 | 13:00 | EC | ECB's Weber Speaks in Berlin | 20-Mar |
