Forex news for US trading on July 19, 2016
- IMF cuts UK growth forecast for 2016 to 1.7% from 1.9%. 2017 to 1.3% from 2.2% on Brexit
- Trump would nominate Steve Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary - report
- Draghi to focus on QE tweaks and bank troubles in press conference - report
- Fmr official: BOJ should add stimulus in July but end commitment to inflation timeline
- New Zealand dairy auction GDT price index +0.0% vs -0.4% prior
- The Atlanta Fed GDPNow estimate comes in at 2.4%.
- IMF's Obstfeld: Challenging for Japan to reach inflation goal.
- US housing starts for June 1189K vs 1166K estimate
- Turkish central bank leaves key rate unchanged but cuts overnight rate by 0.25 %
Markets:
- Gold up $3 to $1332
- WTI crude down 65-cents to $44.59
- S&P 500 down 3 points to 2163
- US 10-year yields down 3 bps to 1.55%
- JPY and USD lead, AUD lags
US dollar strength was a them in North American trading, particularly against the euro. EUR/USD sagged after a solid housing starts report but that was probably more correlation than causation. The pair skidded as low as 1.1000 ahead of the European close from 1.1065 at the start of US trading and the bounce was minimal.
Speaking of weak bounces, the pound was back in the doghouse Tuesday as it slowly slide to 1.3075 from 1.3200 at the start of the US day. Selling into the London close weighed, as did the break of Thursday's low.
USD/JPY continued higher in the early going but couldn't hold above 106.55 and slipped back to unchanged on the day at 106.08. It's all building towards the BOJ at the end of the month.
USD/CAD held a bid throughout the day and managed to close above 1.30 as oil sank again. An early oil climb was quickly beaten down and crude is near a two-month low.
The rest of the commodity block was also under pressure although NZD and AUD climbed about 30 pips each from the session lows, which came before Europe went home.
Have a great trading day.
