Forex news for North American trading on February 8, 2019:
- Canada January employment +66.8K vs +5.0K expected
- Barnier says EU won't reopen deal but will reaffirm openness on political declaration
- Canada January housing starts 208.0K vs +205.0K expected
- Fresh report of turmoil in the White House with Mulvaney and Kudlow eyeing exits
- Baker Hughes US oil rig count 854 vs 847 prior
- Litecoin jumps 30% on potential privacy improvements
- China-US trade talks will take place Feb 14-15
- Amazon has second thoughts on New York HQ
- Sechin tells Putin that OPEC/non-OPEC cuts play into US hands
Markets:
- S&P 500 down 6 points to 2699
- WTI crude flat at $52.65
- US 10-year yields down 2.5 bps to 2.63%
- CAD leads, AUD lags
Friday's action was more-subdued but the Canadian dollar was a mover after yet-another strong jobs report. USD/CAD sank to 1.3232 on the headline but there was no follow-through and it rebounded to 1.3298 before consolidating around 1.3265.
EUR/USD traded in a 25 pip range. The early momentum from Europe was taking it higher despite worries about Italy and it touched 1.1350 but as the day worse on it grinded down to 1.1321 to finish at the lows of the day and week.
USD/JPY once again wasn't particularly swayed by the risk trade. It spent the day within the ranges of the earlier day with 109.65-109.90 as the range. After a modest rally on Monday it was pretty much sideways trading all week.
Cable headlines included the latest denial of changes to the divorce deal but that's pretty much a daily event so it wasn't a factor. The pair was at its best level of 1.2976 as US traders were arriving and dipped down to 1.2930 in the US afternoon as the US dollar improved.
EUR/CHF fell to a 9-day low on some selling ahead of the London fix that led to a slide to 1.1322 from 1.1360.
The antipodeans continued to consolidate and rebound after hitting lows early in local trading.
Have a great weekend!
