Home Daily Commentaries USD loses ground as equities and commodities reverse

USD loses ground as equities and commodities reverse

Daily Currency Update

After being closed yesterday, US markets are heading towards a lower open with futures trading down but commodities are up with Oil breaching the $80 a barrel mark. This has the USD losing ground against most majors. There is no major data today but tomorrow we will have a better line of sight into US inflation with the release of the Producer Prices and Retail Sales reports.

Key Movers

In APAC trading overnight, the Aussie Dollar was helped by a stronger than expected GDP release from China.  Year-over-year GDP in China was up 2.9% for the 4th quarter, up from an expected 1.6%. This caused the AUD to make gains due to expectations that supplies of raw materials to China will be up as well.

The Euro is holding ground against the Greenback today after economic sentiment in Germany rebounded overnight going from a -15.0 last month to a +16.9.  The GBP is also up against the USD after jobs data in the UK shows unemployment staying at a low of 3.7%.

The Canadian dollar is looking up at the start of the session as inflation in Canada dropped more than expected in December.  Headline inflation came in at 6.3%, lower than the 6.4% consensus. This reinforced the expectation that the BoC will raise rates by only 0.25% at their next meeting and that this could be the last hike of the cycle.

Expected Ranges

  • EUR/USD: 1.0808 - 1.0854 ▲
  • GBP/USD: 1.2176 - 1.2263 ▲
  • AUD/USD: 0.6934 - 0.6976 ▼
  • USD/CAD: 1.3363 - 1.3435 ▼