By CountingPips.com
The US Dollar has been mostly higher in forex trading today against most of the major currencies after this week’s dollar depreciation lost a little steam. The American currency gained some ground today versus the British pound, New Zealand dollar, Australian dollar, Canadian
The US stock markets took a breather from their rallies today with the Dow falling by approximately 8 points, the Nasdaq decreasing 6.4 points and the S&P 500 down by 3.27 points. Oil traded almost unchanged at $72.49 while gold lost $5.30 to $1013.60 per ounce.
Important economic developments of the day started with rate decision by the Bank of Japan and followed later by the Swiss National Bank. Both central banks held their respective rates steady as widely expected at 0.1 percent for Japan and 0.25 percent for Switzerland. The BOJ statement said that Japan’s economy is “showing signs of recovery” while the SNB statement said it “now expects real GDP to fall by between 1.5% and 2%”, better than previous estimates, and that “growth is likely to pick up again gradually during the months ahead.” The SNB also restated that it will act “decisively” to curb gains in the Swiss franc against the euro.
Elsewhere, UK retail sales showed no change in the month of August following a 0.2 percent rise in July according to UK National Statistics. Retail sales are now 2.1 percent higher than last year on an annual basis in the UK. The Eurozone’s trade surplus reached a seven-year high in July with a 12.6 billion euro surplus after a 5.4 billion euro surplus in June. Higher exports spurred the surplus higher as seasonally adjusted exports rose by 3.3 percent from June to July according to EuroStat.
Canada’s leading indicators index gained by 1.1 percent in August after an increase of 0.6 percent in July according to Statistics Canada while the Canadian consumer price index fell by 0.8 percent on an annual basis through July. The CPI rose on a seasonally adjusted monthly basis by 0.3 percent as gasoline prices contributed to the rise.
US economic releases included housing data and initial jobless claims data. US housing starts increased in August by 1.5 percent while building permits rose by 2.7 percent and housing completions fell by 5.5 percent. Initial jobless claims fell by 12,000 workers and the 4-week moving average declined by 8,750 workers. Continuing claims grew by 129,000 workers from the week before while the 4-week moving average declined by 5,500 workers.
Today’s EUR/CHF Chart – The Swiss National Bank today held its interest rate steady and reiterated its intention to stem the Swiss franc appreciation against the euro. The SNB this year intervened in the forex market for the first time in over a decade when the SNB was widely believed to have intervened on March 12th when the program was announced and again on June 24th (gray boxes on the chart show). It has been speculated that the SNB’s so-called “line in the sand” for franc appreciation could be the 1.5000 level (blue line).
