Home Daily Commentaries USD ending week down as equities improve

USD ending week down as equities improve

Daily Currency Update

The US dollar index is heading into Friday down by roughly 0.3% as positive trading in European markets looks to carry over into the North American session.  All the North American markets are pointing towards a positive open with the biggest data release, coming at 9:45 am EST, being the ISM non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index. Expectations are for the reading to drop from 55.2 to 54.5. This is however still above the 50 mark which indicates there is still confidence amongst this group.

Key Movers

The Euro is leading the way against the USD this morning as equities in the Eurozone rallied to close out the week. This was caused by a number of positive data releases in the trading zone with the most significant being the trade balance release from Germany. January’s data showed that exports from Germany outpaced imports by 10.8 billion euros, which was better than the expected 9.7 billion euros.

The Canadian dollar is again underperforming against major currencies versus the USD. While both the EUR and GBP are up, the CAD is down from yesterday. This is despite equities markets heading into a better open. Oil is down slightly with West Texas Intermediate oil trading back under $77 a barrel which is likely weighing on the Loonie.  Also hurting the CAD today is the fact that building permits retreated in January by -4.1% rather than growing by the expected 1.5%.

Expected Ranges

  • EUR/USD: 1.0540 - 1.0691 ▲
  • GBP/USD: 1.1928 - 1.2018 ▲
  • AUD/USD: 0.6710 - 0.6724 ▲
  • USD/CAD: 1.3557 - 1.3631 ▲