To start the week, the US Dollar was unable to keep hold of its lofty gains made Friday after better than expected unemployment data in the US sent the Greenback soaring.
This round of dollar buying on the back of positive economic news was counter to the recent trend of buying dollars and yen as safe have currencies amidst economic uncertainty. Many speculate that perhaps part of the big dollar move on Friday was attributed to traders getting stopped out of short dollar positions as well as a new found foresight that US rates could be on the rise sooner than was earlier anticipated.
Nonetheless, the dollar lost some ground today across the board in what seemed like light, sporadic trading.
EUR/USD was at session lows of 1.4168 early today but gradually climbed higher throughout the session, eventually topping out near 1.4210. GBP/USD mirrored the Euro moves, dropping to early lows, in this case near 1.6660, and the pair then drove higher to get over the 1.6710 hump. One of the most notable moves was in the Aussie Dollar, as higher Asian equities pushed the AUD/USD from 0.8330 lows to over the 0.8400 big figure by sessions end despite poor home loans data early in the day. USD/JPY slipped off of early 97.75 highs as Japanese Machine Orders posted positive numbers for the first time in four months. The Yen eventually strengthened to just near the 97.10 level against the dollar.
Chinese PPI and CPI data was put on hold until tomorrow as Typhoon Morakot ravaged Taiwan and China. Tomorrow also will bring Chinese Industrial Production and Retail Sales, helping to set the stage for the potential of big moves in the forex markets as most traders look to China as the barometer of the overall state of the global economy.
Upcoming Economic Data Releases (London Session) prior expected
| 8/10/2009 | 6:00 | JN | Machine Tool Orders (YoY) | JUL P | -72.80% | - - |
| 8/10/2009 | 6:30 | FR | Bank of France Bus. Sentiment | JUL | 84 | - - |
| 8/10/2009 | 6:45 | FR | Industrial Production (MoM) | JUN | 2.60% | -0.20% |
| 8/10/2009 | 6:45 | FR | Industrial Production (YoY) | JUN | -13.40% | - - |
| 8/10/2009 | 6:45 | FR | Manufacturing Production (MoM) | JUN | 2.40% | - - |
| 8/10/2009 | 6:45 | FR | Manufacturing Production (YoY) | JUN | -15.00% | - - |
| 8/10/2009 | 8:30 | EC | Sentix Investor Confidence | AUG | -31.3 | -25.8 |
