The JPY is the strongest. The AUD is the weakest.
The snapshot of the strongest and weakest currencies shows that the JPY is the strongest, while the AUD is the weakest
The market is getting a safe haven bid on the back of concerns about Washington and the health of the US economy (see Ryan's post). That has manifest itself with flows into the JPY and US dollar, and flows out of the AUD, NZD and CAD.
US pre-market stock indices are taking it on the chin today. The S&P index is down -9.5 points, the Nasdaq is down -25 points and the Dow futures are down about -70 points. Ten year bond yields in Europe are down from 3 to 7 bps. The US 10 year, which fell over 6 bp yesterday, is unchanged at 2.315%.
The JPY pairs in the top chart below, are all trading near their day's lows as NY traders enter. It has pretty much been a move lower from the start in these pairs with only a small portion of the day where they traded in the black. The EURUSD trading range (lower chart) shows the pair is still having trouble attracting interest (39 pip range, down -19 pips). The USDCAD and AUDUSD have traded to their 22 day average trading range.
GBPUSD has continued it's fall today but it did run into its 100 day MA at 1.2416. The low reached 1.24185.
- Trade balance in US is expected to show a deficit of -44.6b vs -48.5b last month
- Canada trade balance is expected to show a surplus of 0.60B vs 0.81B last month
- Later at 10 AM, US Factory orders are expected to rise by 1.0% vs 1.2% last month. Durable goods for Feb will get revised but it is expected to remain unchanged at 1.7%. Ex trans it was 0.4% and Cap goods orders non defense ex air fell -0.1%
- As Mike pointed out the NZ GDT auction prices will be released today.
- Draghi is scheduled to speak at the launch of the EU new 50 eu note.
In other markets.
- Spot gold is up $5.42 to 1258.70
- WTI Crude is up +$0.34 to $50.58
