- Chicago Fed national activity index rises to 0.29 in April from 0.13 in March; highest since December 2006
- US existing home sales rise 7.6% in April as tax credit for first time home buyers expires; inventories of unsold homes rises 11.5%
- EU’s Barroso: Germany naive to think EU Treaty can be amended to withdraw voting rights of members with high deficits
- Italy to ban cash transactions above E5,000 to rein in tax evasion; public-sector pay, hiring to be cut
- BOE’s Posen: Inflation beats deflation, no big UK recovery
- Four Spanish savings banks merge as sector shakeout intensifies
- US equities lose ground in final hour, end near session lows at 1073, down 1.3%
- Gold bounces from recent weakness; rises to $1195
The unofficial start of summer in the US is a week away but traders got a jump on the season today. We had one of the lower volatility sessions in recent memory with EUR/USD confined to a very civilized 67 pip 1.2350/1.2417 range during the NY session. The US pushed EUR/USD to its lows early in the session as Spanish banking woes and talk of SNB EUR/USD sales made the rounds. An oversold bounce took us to 1.2417 but Asian central bank selling helped limit the advance. A stock slide late in the day put the euro back down to the 1.2380 level.
USD/JPY was very tightly range bound during US trading, edging as high as 90.63 late this morning. It opened on its lows at 90.03 and spent the day mostly in a 90.35/55 range.
Cable fell back along with EUR/USD, bottoming around 1.4355 in early US trade before rebounding to the 1.4460 level in early afternoon. It ends better bid, around 1.4430 with EUR/GBP losing some ground late, supporting cable.
AUD was pressured late in the session by risk aversion. Mining industry push-back on the mining tax weighed on AUD sentiment as well. 0.8270/0.8342 was the US range. We end the day near the bottom of the range, at 0.8282.
