Dollar ends mixed despite temporary easing of Syrian tension

Market Review - 14/04/2018  05:33GMT  

Dollar ends mixed despite temporary easing of Syrian tension

The greenback ended mixed against its G4 peers in a directionless New York session on Friday. While temporary easing of geopolitical tensions in Syria initially sent U.S. Treasury yields up, retreat in U.S. stocks pressured the dollar back down near the close as traders trimmed their positions ahead of the weekend.  
  
Versus the Japanese yen, dollar traded with a firm bias in Asia and climbed to 107.48, then rose steadily to a 6-week high of 107.78 in New York morning before retreating to 107.26 at the close on pullback in U.S. Treasury yields and the Dow.  
  
Although the single currency inched lower to 1.2318 at European morning as dovish ECB minutes on Thursday continued to weigh on euro, price staged a brief rebound to 1.2346 in European morning on in-line Germany CPI data. However, euro erased intra-day gains and fell to session lows of 1.2307 on renewed usd's strength before rebounding to 1.2344 as usd retreated in New York afternoon vs the yen.  
  
Reuters reported Germany's consumer prices, harmonised to compare with other European countries, rose by 0.4 percent in March from the previous month and were up by 1.5 percent from the previous year, the Federal Statistics Office confirmed on Friday. Data was in-line with consensus. On a non-harmonised basis, consumer price inflation for March was also confirmed. The national index rose 0.4 percent from February and was 1.6 percent higher on the year which were also in-line with consensus.  
  
Despite intra-day pullback to 1.4221 at European open, the British pound found renewed buying and rallied to a fresh 9-week high of 1.4297 on cross-buying in sterling especially versus euro and the yen before retreating to 1.4233 ahead of New York close on profit-taking from recent gains.  
  
In other news, Reuters reported the Federal Reserve will probably need to raise interest rates at least three more times this year in the face of a robust U.S. economy, even while possible trade disruptions pose risks, a top Fed policymaker said on Friday.   
  
On the data front, the preliminary publication of the data for April from the University of Michigan's Consumer Survey Center showed that consumer sentiment fell to 97.8 last month. That was compared to March’s 14-year high of 101.4. Analysts had forecast a drop to just 100.6.  
  
Data to be released this week :  
  
Germany wholesale price, Swiss producer import price, and U.S. New York Fed manufacturing index, retail sales ex-autos, retail sales, business inventories, NAHB housing market index on Monday  
  
New Zealand GDT price index, Japan industrial production, capacity utilization, China retail sales, GDP, Italy CPI, trade balance EU, trade balance non-EU, U.K. claimant count, ILO unemployment rate, average weekly earnings, Germany ZEW economic sentiment, ZEW current conditions, EU ZEW economic sentiment, U.S. building permits, housing starts, redbook, industrial production, capacity utilization, manufacturing output, and Canada manufacturing sales on Tuesday  
  
Japan exports, imports, trade balance, China house price, Germany wholesale price index, Italy industrial orders, industrial sales, U.K. DCLG house price index, core CPI, CPI, RPI, core RPI, PPI input, PPI output, PPI core output, EU HICP final, core HICP, construction output, Canada BoC rate decision, and U.S. MBA mortgage application on Wednesday  
  
New Zealand CPI, Australia Westpac leading index, employment change, unemployment rate, Japan tertiary industry index, EU current account, U.K. retail sales, core retail sales, initial jobless claims, leading indicator, and Canada ADP employment change on Thursday  
  
Japan national CPI, core CPI, Germany producer prices, Canada CPI, CPI BoC core, core CPI, retail sales, retail sales ex-autos, and EU consumer confidence on Friday