Home Daily Commentaries The Greenback receives mixed signals from manufacturing and employment data.

The Greenback receives mixed signals from manufacturing and employment data.

Daily Currency Update

USD - United States DollarThis morning, there was good and bad news for the Greenback, making the U.S. dollar trade sideways. The USD/EUR is falling 0.1 percent, and the USD/CAD is rising 0.10 percent. The good news came from the Philly Fed Manufacturing index, which came in at 10.4 versus an expected number of 7. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Manufacturing activity in the region continued to grow, the survey's broad indicators remained positive, and the indicator for general activity increased. This suggests continued optimism about growth for the next six months. At the same time, the bad news came from unemployment claims number, where the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims came in at 227,000 for the week ending on November 16th. There was no change compared with the previous week's revised level; however, the last week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 225,000 to 227,000. It is usually unfavorable for the currency when the number is more than the forecast.

Key Movers

According to Bloomberg, British opposition Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, will unveil an election manifesto today promising radical changes across the economy, with, "…bankers, billionaires and the establishment" targeted. However, the GBP/USD pair rises in spite of this news, because market participants still only see a conservative victory coming from the December 12th vote. The ECB monetary policy meeting account was released this morning, which, in summary, resulted in officials agreeing to stay put at the Oct 23-24 meeting, which was Mario Draghi's last time as ECB President. It seems that the stimulus package disclosed a month earlier is a work in progress for the European economy. Regarding the European economic outlook, officials noted that incoming data left questions as to whether the Euro Zone's economic weakness would last even longer than expected. The EUR/USD touched a low of 1.0989 on November 14th, but it reached an intraday high of 1.109 only two hours ago.

Expected Ranges

  • EUR/USD: 1.1070 - 1.1097 ▼
  • GBP/USD: 1.2915 - 1.2971 ▼
  • USD/CAD: 1.3269 - 1.3325 ▼
  • AUD/USD: 0.8544 - 08574 ▼