The CHF is the strongest and the NZD is the weakest as the North American session begins. The RBNZ raised rates by 50 basis points this week. The RBA kept rates unchanged, but each are moving lower today. Leading to the downside is the NZD. Go figure.
Technically, the AUDUSD has been helped by finding willing sellers against its 100 hour MA in the Asian session today (blue line in the chart below). Later, the price moved below the 50% of the move up from the March 24 low at 0.67089, and the 200 hour MA at 0.67041. Stay below those levels keep the sellers in control with trend line target on the downside at 0.6678.
For the NZDUSD, it fell back below the 100 day MA at 0.62993 (see chart below) and is moving away from its 100 hour MA at 0.62869. The pair is down testing a swing area between 0.6263 and 0.62699. Below that, is the 200 hour MA at 0.62592.
Economic news today had UK home prices rising by 0.8% on the month which was much higher than the -0.5% expected, but Construction PMI was lower. What is the BOE to do. The GBPUSD is modestly higher. The EURUSD has moved down and up and trades near unchanged. The USDJPY is moving modestly higher after an earlier dip in the Asian session today.
At 8:30 AM the initial jobless claims will be released with the expectations of 200K vs 198K last week. The data will be the last before the BLS jobs data tomorrow which is expected to show a gain of 236K vs 311K last month. Goldman is out raising a red flag that claims may see a spike. That would shift the bias ahead of the jobs report tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Canada will be releasing their jobs data early today due to the Good Friday holiday tomorrow. The employment change is expected to show a gain of 12K vs 21.8K last month. The unemployment rate is expected to increase to 5.1% vs 5.0%.
A snapshot of other markets shows:
- spot gold is trading down $2.65 or -0.13% at $2018.04
- spot silver is trading up to cents or 0.09% at $24.90
- WTI crude oil is trading marginally higher $80.72
- Bitcoin is just below $28000 at $27957. The price is trading near the middle of the range since March 17 between $26,533 and $29,380 (see chart below).
Looking at the premarket for US stocks, the major indices are trading mixed/little changed:
- Dow Industrial Average 50.28 points after yesterday's 80.34 point rise
- S&P index of 3.87 points after yesterday's -10.24 point decline
- NASDAQ index down -14.7 points after yesterday's -129.47 point decline
in the European equity markets, the major indices are trading higher:
- German DAX +0.4%
- Frances CAC +0.33%
- UK 100 +0.74%
- Spain's Ibex +0.67%
- Italy's FTSE MIB +0.92%
in the US at that market, yields are trading mostly lower especially in the shorter end:
- two year 3.719%, -4.4 basis points
- five year 3.320% -2.3 basis points
- 10 year 3.282% -0.4 basis points
- 30 year 3.570% +1.3 basis points
In the European debt market, the benchmark 10 year yields are trading lower