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Forexlive Americas FX news wrap 17 Apr: Empire manufacturing index strong. USD rallies. | Forexlive

The Empire manufacturing index came in much stronger than expectations at 10.8 versus -18.0 estimate. The index is the first of the regional indices for the month of April. The Philly Fed manufacturing index will be released on Thursday. The flash manufacturing and services PMI’s will be released on Friday. Next week the Richmond Fed manufacturing index will be released on Tuesday.

The stronger number sent the dollar higher. Also sent US yields to the upside. Looking at the treasury curve today:

  • two year yield moved up 9.1 basis points to 4.194%
  • five year yield moved up 8.5 basis points to 3.696%
  • 10 year yield moved up 7.4 basis points to 3.596%
  • 30 year yield moved up 7.4 basis points to 3.810%

Looking at the currency market, the US dollar was the strongest of the major currencies. It rose the most versus the the EUR (up 0.66%), the CHF (up 0.57%) and the JPY (up 0.55%). The EUR was the weakest of the majors.

For the EURUSD, it started the North American session near the 100 hour moving average at 1.0987. After moving below the 200 hour moving average 1.09435, additional sellers entered the market pushing the price to the low for the day at 1.09085. The price rallied modestly for over the next 5-6 hours into the close and is currently trading at 1.0927. With the 200 hour moving at a 1.09435 still higher, that level will be the close risk level for sellers looking for more downside into the new trading day. On the downside, the 50% midpoint of the move up from the March 24 swing low comes at 1.0894. Move below that level opens the door for further downside momentum in the new trading day.

The USDCAD moved above both the 100 hour and 200 day MA near 1.3396 and moved up to a high of 1.34049 before rotating back lower into the close. The pair is trading right around the converged MAs and they will continue to be barometers for buyers and sellers in the new trading day.

The NZDUSD fell to a low of 0.61602 today which was right at the 200 day MA as well (lower green line on the chart below). The price did bounce off that level and is looking to close near the low from last week and going back to March 27 at 0.6180. That level will be the barometer in early trading in the new day, but a move below and then the 200 day MA would shift the bias even more to the downside.

IN other markets:

  • Spot gold is trading down around $-8.60 or -0.44% at $1994.80
  • Spot silver is down $0.30 or -1.17% at $25.01
  • WTI crude oil is down $1.54 at $80.98
  • Bitcoin also fell today and is trading back below the $30,000 level at $29,445.

Tomorrow’s earnings include:

  • Johnson & Johnson
  • Bank of America
  • United Airlines
  • Netflix
  • Goldman Sachs
  • Lockheed Martin
  • Intuitive Surgical

In the new trading day economic highlights include:

  • UK jobs data at 2 AM ET. Claimant count expected to fall -2.5K versus -11.2 K last month
  • German ZEW economic sentiment index at 5 AM ET. Expectations 15.5 versus 13.0
  • Canada CPI at 8:30 AM. Estimate 0.6% versus 0.4% last month. Canada’s Macklem will be speaking.