dollar plummets!

The dollar plummeted on Friday against its G10 peers! European officials are coming closer to coming up with a solution to the Euro zone sovereign debt crisis.

Investors are likely to focus on the upcoming FOMC meeting for this week.  

Germany January IFO climate n export is good at 10.3 vs 109.9 cons.

Uk December retail sales dropped down more than expected to -0.8% vs -0.3% cons.

It’s quite a directionless scenario at the moment in Asia open. Investors seem to be looking at European session to form their trades later this evening. We’ve got European data coming out this evening which could provide movement, so keep a watch for later.

Data today

German PMI Manufacturing -8.30am GMT

German PMI Services – 8.30am GMT

Eurozone PMI Manufacturing -9am GMT

Eurozone PMI Services – 9am GMT

Eurozone Industrial new orders – 10am GMT

morning update

US housing starts and building permit data for December were mixed due to weather effects. US December housing starts -4.3% to 529k vs consensus 550k. Building permits +16.7% to 635k vs consensus 554k. Bad weather likely affected starts, but of course did not weigh on permits.

Sources quoted that the recent strength in the JPY is brought about from renew inflows to the Japanese equities. This could be explained by a potential stronger appetite for Japanese exports from its 2 biggest trading partners, US and China due to the stronger economic growth and Chinese Yuan respectively.

EURUSD retreated after reports of German government advisor was quoted as saying Greece may not be able to repay its foreign debts

i'm still waiting on the sideline at the moment waiting for a change or retracement in trend direction. Market's seem to be trending.

Data today

China Dec CPI

China Q4 GDP

China Dec Retail Sales

German PPI – 7am GMT

Eurozone consumer confidence – 3pm GMT

US Initial Jobless Claims – 1.30pm GMT

US Dec Existing Home Sales – 3pm GMT

US Leading indicators – 3pm GMT

US Philadelphia Fed index – 3pm GMT

up up up goes the cable

UK CPI beat market expectation yesterday, which boosted the cable up to above 1.6000.

Risk currencies did extremely well last night over risk-supportive news out of Europe, with the good Spanish auction and good german Zew data.

Aussie remained close to parity, but with China tightening to combat inflation, we could see the Aussie being shaken up a little.

Data today

UK average weekly earnings – 9.30am GMT

UK ULO unemployment rate – 9.30am GMT

UK claimant count rate – 9.30am GMT

UK Jobless claims change – 9.30am GMT

Eurozone current account – 9am GMT

US building permits – 1.30pm GMT

US housing starts – 1.30pm GMT

low liquidity last night. May see movement today.

A quiet session last night due to the US being on holiday. We saw the USD trade in a mixed manor, where it made gains against the Euro but weakened against the Aussie and Kiwi.

Yen struggled to test the topside and traded heavily down to 82.40.

Cable benefitted from the selling of Euro crosses as market bought Aussie and cable against the Euro.

We have quite a bit of data coming out tonite so we may just see some movement today.

Data today

Japan industrial production – 4.30am GMT

Japan capacity utilization -4.30am GMT

Japan machine tools order -4.30am GMT

UK CPI – 9.30am GMT

German ZEW survey -10am GMT

Eurozone ZEW survey – 10am GMT

US Empire Manufacturing – 1.30pm GMT

US total net TIC flows – 2pm GMT

US NAHB housing market index – 3pm GMT

Back in action for the new year!

It’s the New Year and we’re already half-way into January. I’ve been MIA as I’ve been enjoying my break from the markets, but I’m back now so let’s see what economic news we got today!

We saw risk appetite weakening on Friday after the surprise 50 bp hike of China’s reserve ratio.

Fitch downgrade of Greece, but this play was more of a catch up, as Moody’s and S&P have already rated Greece as junk.

Aussie took a beating after China’s decision, and domestic news of the flooding situation did not help as well.

It looks like we don’t have any data coming out today, so keep a watch on trend plays once the Europe opens. The U.S is closed today because of Martin Luther King Day. So we may just see a quiet market later in the evening.