Drum Roll Please, And The Number Is - The news that the market has been waiting for all week is today's US jobs data and here it is - the economy created 216,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.8%, which are both better than expected. All week we have been subjected to happy talk from various Fed officials pretending to be hawks with visions of removing monetary stimulus. All I can say to this is show me the rate hike. Talk is cheap, truth is the Fed is still a year away from an actual interest rate hike, in my humble opinion. The Fed member that we have not heard from this week is New York Fed President, Dudley. I'm most interested in hearing what he has to say because he is the most dovish so if he changes his tune then perhaps the Fed is closer to removing monetary stimulus. Back to the markets, the Yen fell through its 200-day moving average against the US as interest rate differentials weigh on the Yen. In essence, Japan is the only country that will continue with its ultra loose monetary policies because of the fallout of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear reactors situation. In Europe, the "tiffing Euro", as its being referred to due to its resilience in the face of the continued European sovereign debt crisis, continues to remain well bid ahead of its April 7th rate hike. In Canada, the CAD continues to push higher after positive US jobs data because good news for the US is good economic news for Canada, its largest trading partner. Also, stronger US jobs data provides a bit more of a lift to commodity prices in general. In fact, oil prices rose ahead of today's data which also lent support to the CAD.
Here are the interbank mid-market rates at the time of posting:
EUR/USD 1.4112 USD/CHF 0.9293
GBP/USD 1.6014 USD/CAD 0.9658
AUD/USD 1.0353 EUR/CAD 1.3637
NZD/USD 0.7633 GBP/CAD 1.5470
USD/JPY 84.25 USD/MXN 11.8442
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