Tag Archives: USD

The US dollar rose against all the major currencies last week. The importance of the price action does not lie with the magnitude or the breadth of the advance. Instead, the two takeaway technical observations are 1) the seemingly one-way market for euro and yen ended and 2) the dollar-bloc currencies appear to have put in at least a medium-term top. We hasten to note that the fundamental developments have not shifted a more dollar-friendly near-term direction.  Investors,  judging from...

The US dollar is firm, near the best levels of the week against the euro, yen, and sterling. However, against the dollar-bloc and several actively traded emerging market currencies, including the Turkish lira and South African rand, the greenback has given back some of yesterday’s gains.   Oil is snapping a four-day decline.  News that US output fell by 113k barrels a day last week, the biggest drop in eight months, coupled with a Canadian wildfire that is threatening as much as one...

I was invited to discuss the potential impact of a Trump presidency on the US dollar with Bloomberg's with Joe Weisenthal, Oliver Renick, and Alix Steel on "What'd You Miss" show yesterday afternoon, Of course the topic lends itself to all sorts of partisanship.  However, I put aside my own political axes and focused on two potential channels through which could impact the dollar.   The first is through a foreign economic policy that undermines US treaty obligations under various trade...

In light of the Fed’s dovish tilt in March, the global liquidity outlook turned further in favor of EM.  As a result, EM extended the bounce off the January/February lows.  There’s no clear narrative as to why EM is softer this week, but it just seems to be a much-needed correction and positioning flush-out. Bottom line:  a dovish Fed (for now) should limit this sell-off, and the EM rally could resume for a while longer before turbulence returns later this year.  We expect many EM...

TRUMP . USPREZ16 This Great Graphic is a 90-day history of the “betting” at PredictIt that Trump becomes the new US President.  With Cruz suspending his campaign, the odds of Trump have risen just above 40%. TRUMP.USPREZ16 The US national interests and challenges to those interests do not change much from year-to-year, and this may help explain the continuity in US foreign policy (including foreign economic policy). Trump’s campaign style emphasized a break from the conventional...

There is one question many investors are asking after noting that with Cruz dropping out of the Republican primary, Trump has secured the nomination, and that is whether the dollar has turned. The greenback has extended yesterday’s reversal higher. The euro had briefly poked through $1.16 and closed on its lows a little below $1.15. Sterling peaked above near $1.4770 and finished near$1.4535 for a potential key reversal.  Despite weakness in US stocks and a sharp drop in US yields, two...

The US dollar’s downtrend is extending.  The euro traded above $1.16 for the first time since last August. With Japanese markets closed for the second half of the Golden Week holidays, perhaps participants felt less hampered by the risk of intervention and pushed the dollar to almost JPY105.50.  Despite an unexpectedly large fall in the UK’s manufacturing PMI (49.2 from 50.7), sterling has pushed to its highest level in four months (~$1.4770). The Australian dollar is the main exception. ...

In quiet turnover, with China, Hong Kong, Singapore and London markets closed, the US dollar is trading with a heavier bias against all the major currencies.  Lower commodity prices, including oil and copper, appears to be taking a toll on some emerging market currencies, including the South African rand. Japanese markets were closed last Friday and will be closed the next three sessions.  The yen appreciated nearly 5% in the aftermath of the FOMC/BOJ meetings last week.  The greenback’s...

The die is cast.  The Federal Reserve is on an extended pause after the rate hike last December. The market remains convinced that the risk of a June hike are negligible (~ less than 12% chance).   The ECB has yet to implement the TLTRO and corporate bond purchase initiatives that were announced in March.  The impact of its programs have to be monitored before being evaluated.   It is unreasonable to expect any new initiative in the coming months.   The Bank of Japan did not take...

Speculators in the futures market made mostly small position adjustments in the sessions leading up to the FOMC and BOJ meetings.   During the Commitment of Traders reporting week ending April 26, the largest adjustment of speculative position in the currency futures was the 12.5 k build of gross long Australian dollar contracts. The accumulation lifted the gross position to 110.0k contracts, which surpasses the speculative gross long euro position (99.1k contracts) and the speculative...