The U.S. dollar was mostly firmer following better than expected
housing and employment data and concerns that China may require
further tightening to curb growth. EUR/USD was rejected from the key
1.3500 figure and is currently trading around 1.3465 and GBP/USD was
unable to sustain a move above 1.6000 and has corrected lower to
current levels around 1.5910.
Weekly initial jobless claims out of the U.S. was a positive surprise
with a drop to 404K (cons. 420K) from the prior week's 441K (revised
lower from 445K). The 4-week moving average moved lower to 411.8K from
the prior 415.8K indicating that the labor market is slowly continuing
to move in the right direction. December existing home sales was also
unexpectedly better as sales rose by much more than the expected 4.87M
with a print of 5.28M up from November's 4.7M for a MoM change of
12.3%. The Philadelphia Fed index for January was also released today
with a slightly disappointing figure of 19.3 (cons. 20.8, prior 20.8).
Overall, the data was viewed as positive and supported the greenback.
U.S. equities spent much of the session in negative territory as risk
aversion took hold following the overnight release of Chinese data,
however markets grinded higher throughout the session to finish the
day only marginally lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed
lower by about -0.02% and the S&P 500 edged lower by about -0.13%.
Commodities suffered losses as investor concern about Chinese
tightening weighed on sentiment. Gold, silver and oil fell by -1.74%,
-4.34%, and -2.20% respectively.
On the data front for the upcoming Asia/Pacific session is New Zealand
December Business NZ PMI, November retail sales, Australia 4Q import
and export price index, and the November Japan All Industry Activity
index.
Source: ActionForex.Com
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