Tag Archives: USD

China’s slew of economic data lends credence to ideas that the world’s second-largest economy may be stabilizing.  However, the data failed to have a wider impact on the global capital markets, including supporting Chinese equities.  In fact,  the seven-day advance in the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index was snapped with a fractional loss today. European shares are also lower on profit-taking, breaking a five-day advance.  Commodities, including oil, copper, nickel and zinc are also trading off....

This Great Graphic, created on Bloomberg shows the price of gold over the last six months.  The price peaked a month ago near $1285.  It seems a distribution top is being formed. Specifically, it looks like a potential head and shoulders top.  The left shoulder was formed by the spike on February 11, which also marked the bottom of many equity markets.  The head was formed in the first half of March.  The right shoulder was put set earlier this week. To be sure, the neckline has...

Every so often there is a market move that appears inexplicable.  The conundrum now is the yen’s strength.  Of course, there are numerous attempts to shed light on the yen’s rise, but many, like ourselves, are not very satisfied. Perhaps part of the problem is that many participants are looking for a single narrative that explains why the dollar peaked against the yen last June near JPY125.85 and fell to almost JPY107.60 yesterday.   However, closer inspection suggests the dollar’s...

The yen's surge may be easing.  It made a new marginal high in Asia, but has not been able to sustain it   Technically, a hammer candlestick pattern may be traced out by the greenback's recovery today. Supporting the greenback is the movement in interest rate differentials.  The US 10-year premium over Japan has widened by nearly 10 bp since last Thursday.   Near 184 bp, it is the widest this month.  The two-year premium has also widened at 96 bp.  It is also the widest this month. The...

 Early in the financial crisis, the US forced all large banks to take an infusion of capital.  This helped put a floor under the US financial system.  Regulators and stakeholders encouraged US banks to address the significant nonperforming loan problem. The eurozone banking woes persist.  Before the weekend, the shares of the one the largest banks was trading at 25 -year lows.  The problem with nonperforming loans though is largely concentrated in the periphery.  Italy is moving to...

Speculators in the futures market were not particularly active in Commitment of Traders reporting week ending April 5.  There was only one gross position adjustment which we regard as significant (defined as a 10k contract change), and that was in the yen.   Yen bulls extended their gross long position by 13.3k contract to new record of 98.1k contracts.   However, the bears are beginning to get itchy and have sold into the yen gains for the second consecutive week.  The gross short yen...

Although there is no convincing technical evidence that dollar's retreat in Q1 is over, we suspect it is nearly complete.  We will be especially sensitive to reversal patterns, divergences with technical indicators, and other signs that the move is exhausted. The fundamental economic driver of our medium term constructive outlook for the US dollar, the divergence of monetary policy between the major central banks, relative health of the financial sector, and absorption of capacity,...

The old head and shoulders pattern in the dollar against the yen is back in vogue.  We first pointed it out in the first week of January here. Recall the details.  The neckline is drawn around JPY116.30 and measuring objective is near JPY107.00.   That target also corresponds to a 38.2% retracement of the big Abe-inspired dollar rally (~JPY106.80).   This Great Graphic from Bloomberg shows the pattern.   We note the conflicting flows presently.  Portfolio managers continue to be large...

The US dollar is better bid today but remains largely in the ranges seen in recent days.  There a few developments to note, which together are lifting European equities after Asian equities softened.   First, the API oil inventory estimate showed an unexpected fall of 4.3 mln barrels.  An increase of half the magnitude was expected.  The DOE estimate, which is considered more reliable, will be one of the North American highlights today.  Second, and also supporting the oil complex today...

There are four events that will shape market psychology in the week ahead.  They are Yellen's speech to the NY Economic Club, US jobs data, eurozone March CPI and PMI, and Japan's Tankan Survey.   The broad backdrop is characterized by the rebuilding of risk appetites since the middle of February, though the MSCI emerging market equity index put in its low on January 20, as did the CRB Index.  The price of oil appeared to bottom then as well, but it retested the lows in mid-February and...