Forex - What is Behind Today's V Shaped Moves?

We haven't seen this type of volatility in the foreign exchange market in weeks. In the last 24 hours trading ranges expanded sharply leading to big moves in currencies. The NY session started with strength for the U.S. dollar and weakness in euro and sterling.  Although the greenback ended the day higher versus the Japanese Yen, it experienced significant losses against other major currencies.  The only explanation for today's moves is risk appetite but it took a while for USD/JPY to catch up to the broader market. With the Dow rising over 300 points today, 30K is in sight and currencies are benefitting from the prospect of a continued rally in equities.  Having hit a low of 110.20 during the Asian trading session, USD/JPY quietly traded higher throughout the day but didn't break 111 until Fed Presidents Evans and Kaplan made a hawkish shift. Evans who voted against a rate hike at the last meeting, said he expects strong growth this year and next as the tax cut should add to business investment and jobs.  Kaplan said the base case in 2018 is for 3 rate hikes as the tax cuts could drive unemployment down to the 3% range by the end of the year.  Neither Evans nor Kaplan are FOMC voters this year but the market cared more about their positive outlook than their direct influence on policy. If the doves can be convinced the economy is strengthening and the case for rate hikes hardening, then the hawks could squawk even louder. As expected the Beige Book confirmed that all Fed districts saw modest to moderate economic growth with labor market tightening and wages on the rise.  Foreign central banks are also growing uncomfortable with the recent strength of their currencies, so we may finally see the dollar recover some of this month's losses.  Today's rally in USD/JPY should have continuation regardless of tomorrow's housing reports and Philadelphia Fed index.  We are looking for a move to 112 but beyond that, there will be resistance between 112.30 and 112.50.

The big event today was supposed to be the Bank of Canada's monetary policy decision. They raised interest rates by 25bp in a move that Governor Poloz described as a "no brainer."  At first, the Canadian dollar dropped because the policy statement expressed concerns about NAFTA and stressed the need for accommodation to keep inflation on target. The BoC also maintained their view that cautiousness is needed on future rate rises.  However, the Canadian dollar recovered its losses when Governor Poloz and Deputy Governor Wilkins took to the podium an hour later.  They expressed some concerns about wages and the risk of stalling the expansion by raising rates too quickly but they also felt that tightening too slowly would risk an inflation buildup.  Poloz said a rate hike today would validate what they've seen in the market and while he can't say how much accommodation is needed the economy is likely to warrant higher rates over time according to the policy statement.  The main takeaway from today's announcement is that the central bank felt the economy is strong enough to make a hike an easy decision and while they need to be cautious looking ahead, they are optimistic and that keeps another round of tightening in play.  The downtrend in USD/CAD remains intact for the time being and we expect a move below 1.2400 that could extend down to 1.2350.

Thanks to risk appetite, the Australian and New Zealand dollars hit fresh 3 month highs today. Tonight is a busy one in Asia with Australian employment and Chinese GDP data scheduled for release.  The brightest spot of the Australian economy has been the labor market and today, we'll learn if the momentum was sustained at the end of the year.  It would be difficult for job growth to come any where close to the 61.6K increase reported in November but if employment change meets or beats the market's 15K expectation just slightly and the unemployment rate declines, it would enough to send AUD/USD well above 80 cents.  However if job growth slows more than expected with full time jobs suffering the most and the unemployment rate holding steady, we could see a sharp correction in AUD/USD especially ahead of what is widely believed to be slower Chinese growth in Q4. 2018 will be a challenging year for China and softer GDP, retail sales and industrial production numbers would remind investors of the trouble to come.  Tonight's economic reports should have a meaningful impact on AUD and NZD.  

Meanwhile for the past week we have been warning about ECB jawboning and we're seeing the first signs of discomfort from the central bank.  This morning, ECB Vice President Constancio joined ECB member Nowotny in suggesting that the strong and sudden moves in the currency is a concern.  If it were to rise further, there's no doubt that Mario Draghi would share his two cents, which would result in a much larger decline for the currency.   What's interesting about EUR/USD is that 1.22 has held as rock solid support for the past 72 hours. We think its only a matter of time before this level is broken, paving the way for a steeper slide down to 1.2100 and possibly even 1.20. With the greenback ending the day strong, we would not be surprise if 1.22 broke in the Asia session just as it EUR/USD shot above 1.23 last night.  There was no explanation for the move outside of low liquidity stop hunting but the nearly 1 cent reversal in the last 2 hours of the NY day puts the pair at serious risk for a deeper reversal.

GBP/USD is also 100 pips off its 1.3943 high but it is holding up much better on a technical base than euro.  The V-shaped move in the currency was driven by risk appetite followed by dollar strength.  We continue to believe that 2018 will be a good year for sterling but in the near term, buying GBP vs. JPY, CHF, or the commodity currencies may be a better bet. With that in mind, European Union officials are certainly not making it easy as European Commission President Juncker urges Prime Minister May to reverse Brexit and offers to allow the country to re-apply for membership after departing.