By CountingPips.com
The U.S. Dollar has been trading stronger in the forex markets today against most of the major currencies and has started off the week in the black after a decline last week. The dollar has made gains on Monday against the euro, British pound, Swiss franc, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar while the American currency has
The euro has fallen versus the dollar by approximately 100 pips today as the EUR/USD currency pair has declined to trade near the 1.3660 level after opening the day at 1.3773. The EUR/USD rose last week by 144 pips to break out of its trading range and touched its highest level since February 11th after ending the prior three weeks almost unchanged.
The British pound has fallen by 150 pips today after gaining a total of 67 pips last week against the dollar and the GBP/USD is trading right above the psychological level at 1.5000.
The dollar has gained versus the Canadian dollar by approximately 30 pips today as the USD/CAD trades around the 1.0200 level. The dollar had fallen by 95 pips last week to the Canadian dollar to mark a second straight weekly decline. Rounding out the dollars gains today shows increases of approximately 40 pips versus the Swiss franc, the New Zealand dollar and Australian dollar while the USD has fallen against the Japanese yen by over 20 pips.
The dollar had fallen last week versus the Australian dollar (-76 pips), New Zealand dollar (-49 pips) and against the Swiss franc (-161 pips) while the USD gained 23 pips versus the Japanese yen.
The US stock markets today have had a mixed session today with the Dow gaining by approximately 17 points, the Nasdaq decreasing over 5 points and the S&P 500 up by less than 1 point. Oil has fallen lower by $1.33 to $79.91 while gold has risen by $3.60 at $1,105.10 per ounce.
NY Manufacturing expands and Investors pull back US investments
Economic news releases today showed that New York manufacturing activity dipped a bit in March but showed expanding levels while new orders increased. The business activity index showed its eight straight month of positive readings, according to the NY Federal Reserve. New orders rose sharply by 17 points in March while shipments, inventories and the employment indexes also increased in the month.
Also released today was the Treasury Department report on foreign investment for United States securities and it showed foreign investors scaled back on US investments in January. The net outflows by foreign investors in January was $33.4 billion following a net inflow of $53.6 billion in December. This important data, which measures capital flows in and out of the US, showed that foreign investors bought a total of $19.1 billion in long-term US securities in January after spending $63.3 billion in December.
EUR/USD Chart – The Euro falling back below the 1.3700 level versus the dollar in forex trading today. The EUR/USD climbed over 140 pips last week before retreating today and dropping down to the 100-hour moving average in red.
