USD/CHF edges lower toward parity as US stocks extend decline

The USD/CHF pair advanced to a daily high of 1.0022 earlier today but struggled to preserve its momentum and erased all of its daily gains in the second half of the day. As of writing, the pair was losing 0.04% on a daily basis at 1.0004.

A dismal market mood in the NA session seems to be helping the CHF gather strength as a safe-haven and weighs on the pair. Major equity indexes in the U.S. on Thursday started the day in the negative territory and extended their slide with the Nasdaq Composite now losing around 0.7%.

On the other hand, the greenback is having a difficult time setting its next short-term direction amid a mixed batch of macroeconomic data releases from the U.S. On Thursday, the US Census Bureau reported that durable goods orders rose 1.2% in December to miss the market expectation for a growth of 1.5%. Later in the day, the IHS Markit in its preliminary PMI report revealed that the manufacturing sector lost momentum in February and the service sector expanded at a more robust pace than expected in the same period. As of writing, the DXY is virtually unchanged on the day at 96.50.

• US: Durable goods orders rose 1.2% in December vs 1.5% expected.
• US: Initial weekly jobless claims decreased by 23,000 to 216,000.
• Philly Fed Manufacturing Index plummets to -4.1 in February from 17 in January.
• US: Markit Manufacturing PMI drops to 53.7 in February (preliminary) vs 54.7 expected.
• US: Existing home sales drop 1.2% in January.

On Friday, industrial production data from Switzerland, which showed a contraction of 7.7% in the third quarter, will be looked upon for fresh impetus.

Key technical levels

With a daily close below 1.0000 (parity/psychological level), the pair could target 0.9935 (50-DMA) on the downside ahead of 0.9900 (Jan. 31 low). On the other hand, resistances are located at 1.0020 (20-DMA), 1.0060 (Feb. 19 high) and 1.0100 (Feb. 13 high).