CAD consolidating after last week’s sharp rise

Key Movers

There are two ways of looking at the Dollar’s performance last week: the bearish view is that with all the good news on the economy, the stock market and a rising trend of yields across the maturity spectrum, it still couldn’t rally and made a fresh 14-week low of 91.44 on its index against a basket of major currencies. The bullish view is that for all the growing political storm around President Trump, a disappointing labour market report and a stream of negative forecasts for it from major financial hit a one week high of 91.92 in this morning’s European trading session.
Away from the Fire and Fury of US politics, Friday’s labour market report was generally viewed as a bit of a disappointment even though the full year numbers for 2017 were pretty encouraging. Non-farm payrolls rose just 148,000, compared with the 190,000 consensus estimate. The jobless rate was at 4.1% for a third month, while average hourly earnings increased by 2.5% from a year earlier, after a 2.4% gain in November that was revised downwards. The December numbers, while below forecast, brought the 2017 total to 2.06 million jobs; below 2016 but slightly more than analysts had been expecting at the start of Donald Trump’s first year as president.
Overnight in Asia and the European morning, the USD has strengthened as both EUR/USD and GBP/USD are between 20-30 pips lower than Friday’s close. All eyes now will be on Friday’s US CPI to see whether or not the strength in the economy and labour market is at last feeding through into higher prices. Before then, the Fed’s Bostic, Williams and Rosengren are all scheduled to speak on the economy and inflation targeting. The US Dollar index opens in North America this morning around 91.80.


The EUR had a very mixed first week of the year; at one point reaching a fresh 3-year high against the US Dollar but then slipping back on Friday to be below the mid-point of its weekly trading range. Indeed, for all the optimism around the Eurozone economy, the EUR rose only against the USD and was down against all the other major currencies we follow here. Overnight in Asia and in the European morning it has fallen further against the USD, printing an intra-day low of 1.1990.
For this week, the calendar is quite busy with a string of second-tier economic releases. This morning brought a better than expected consumer confidence index of 116 (f/c 114.8) industrial sentiment of 9.1 (f/c 8.4) and business climate of 1.7 (f/c 1.51). For good measure, retail sales in the Eurozone rose 1.5% m/m in November, above the consensus estimate of a 1.3% monthly increase.
Despite the continued good news on the Eurozone economy, a growing concern for currency traders is the progress – or otherwise – of talks to form a coalition government in Germany. According to Press reports, two-thirds of Germans believe her best days are behind her, according to the Deutschlandtrend survey for ARD television, while satisfaction with her slipped to 52%, down from 63% in October. Ms Merkel’s husband, Joachim Sauer, retired from his professorship in October, and she is said to have thought long and hard about running for a fourth term. Chancellor Angela Merkel has been the dominant figure on the European political scene for the last decade and uncertainty about her future is likely to be a factor weighing down on the EUR.
The EUR opens in North America this Friday morning at USD1.1995 and EUR/CAD1.4860.


The British Pound had a mixed week and finished just above the mid-point of its range against the US Dollar. Having raced up to a high last Wednesday morning of 1.3608, it then saw an equally rapid slide back down to 1.3500 before finishing on Friday evening at USD1.3565 and CAD1.6835.

It was reported in The Times this morning that, “Britain experienced its worst year for consumer spending in five years in 2017, after expenditure dropped in the run-up to Christmas as declining real wages and economic uncertainty continued to put a strain on household finances”. Figures being published by Visa and IHS Market today show that retail spending fell by 1% in December on an annual basis, with total expenditure falling for seven of the past eight months. This was the first annual decline since 2012.

Separate figures today from Halifax Bank showed UK house prices fell by 0.6% in December. It’s the first monthly decline since last June, and the latest signal that Britain’s property market is weakening. Halifax also reports that prices only rose by 2.7% during 2017. The average price of £225,021 at the end of the year compares with £219, 741 back in January 2017.

With few top-tier UK economic statistics this week, attention will most likely be on domestic politics. Prime Minister Theresa May is said to be announcing a major Cabinet re-shuffle on and the media locally will be consumed with what it may or may not mean for economic policy and Brexit negotiations.

The British Pound opens in North America this morning at USD1.3545, CAD1.6800 and AUD1.7275.


The Australian Dollar was on a US 78 cents big figure for all but a few minutes of last week, moving steadily higher to reach a best level on Friday of 0.7874; its highest since October 20th. Overall, the AUD ended the week higher against the USD, GBP and EUR but down against the NZD and CAD.

There were two main – but interlinked - drivers of the Aussie Dollar: commodity prices and the Chinese economy. The Bloomberg Commodity Index, which tracks returns on 22 raw materials, posted an unprecedented 14 days of gains to Wednesday, closing at the highest since February last year. On Thursday it was flat and on Friday it finally closed lower; breaking a remarkable streak which had not seen a down day since the Fed hikes rates in December.

The Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Innovation and Science said in a report published today that it expects iron ore prices to average $51.50 a tonne this year, down 20% from 2017, because of rising global supply and moderating demand from top importer China as its steel sector shrinks. The forecast price decline will continue into 2019, when the steelmaking raw material will average only $49 a tonne, the Department said. Today, the price of iron ore is around $75 per tonne and it hasn’t been below the $52 forecast since June 2017. The report warned, “The iron ore price is expected to experience some ongoing volatility in early 2018, as the market responds to uncertainty regarding the impact of winter production restrictions on iron ore demand.”

Private sector forecasts for iron ore have been mostly higher: UBS and Citibank, for example, both see prices averaging around $64 per tonne for 2017 and the official numbers have weighed down on the Australian Dollar overnight. It opens in North America this morning at USD0.7835 with AUD/CAD at 0.9720 and AUD/NZD1.0915.


The New Zealand Dollar is again showing the day-to-day volatility which characterized it in early December when it would regularly swing from being the day’s strongest currency to the very worst. Last Wednesday, it under-performed with the AUD/NZD cross moving up to a 1-month high of 1.1050 and the NZD/USD pair struggling to hold on to a US 71 cents big figure. On Thursday, however, it surged to the top of the FX pile with AUD/NZD down to 1.0985 and NZD/USD back up to 0.7160. Friday saw it extend gains against both the AUD and the USD to end the week the second-best performer after the Canadian Dollar. This morning in Asia it is back out in front on the leaderboard, with NZD/USd up at 0.7177 and AUD/NZD at a nearly 3-week low of 1.0935.

There’s very little economic data scheduled for release in New Zealand this week and the currency will likely be driven by offshore events and news flow. The day-to-day volatility we have seen for almost a month now is unlikely to subside and clients may find it useful to leave firm orders in advance to benefit from any large swings in their favour, rather than using up precious intellectual capital by following choppy markets in real-time.

After its very good run overnight in Asia and this morning in Europe, the New Zealand Dollar opens in North America this Monday morning at USD0.7175 with GNZD/CAD at 0.8905.