Forex news for North American trade on March 27, 2018:
- US March consumer confidence 127.7 vs 131.0 expected
- US CaseShiller 20-city house price index +6.4% vs +6.15% y/y expected
- Richmond Fed manufacturing index for March 15 vs. 22 estimate
- Trump and Abe to meet April 18 - report
- US sells 5-year notes at 2.612% compared to 2.615% WI bid
- Fed's Bostic: No comments on the outlook or monetary policy
- Dallas Fed services sector outlook +13.5 vs +17.5 prior
- China vice premier calls for deeper financial reform in a market-oriented way
- Ross: We're ending up with negotiated deals, not trade wars
Markets:
- Gold down $10 to $1344
- WTI crude down 84-cents to $64.71
- US 10-year yields down 7.8 bps to 2.77%
- JPY leads, AUD lags
- S&P 500 down 46 points to 2611
It was dramatic.
The theme as North American traders arrived was US dollar strength across the board but once the stock market opened, that changed the equation.
Cable and EUR/USD started into retracements. Cable had been beaten up in Europe but bottomed at 1.4066 just as US traders arrived and it bounced more than a full cent then sagged at the end of the day to 1.4155.
EUR/USD bounced to 1.2415 from 1.2372 and then finished at 1.2400, down 40 pips on the day.
The yen crosses were hit hard late. They had been making some headway on positive risk appetite early but the wheels came off of technology stocks and the broader market. There was no particular trigger for the rout but it got ugly quickly and at one point almost all of Monday's gain was erased.
USD/JPY finished flat on the day at 105.42 from a high of 105.90 as North American arrived.
The Australian dollar was particularly weak on the day as it skidded to 0.7675 from 0.7715 when North America arrived a 0.7758 in Asia-Pacific trading. Watch last week's low of 0.7672
