Highlights of the latest Marker Research release on USD.
Full research available here.
USD currency index was one of the main losers during the last week, posting losses versus seven out of eight other major currencies. The only currency that posted even steeper decline was the loonie. Canadian Dollar plunged 1.21% over the week, as the nation’s building permits for February disappointed markets to the downside, falling most in five months. Moreover, even a more positive picture of Canada’s corporate sector was not able to provide a significant, long-term bullish bias for the loonie. In contrast, the Japanese Yen gained 1.15% over the described period, as the Bank of Japan refrained from additional stimulus, citing stronger growth and a pickup in inflation.
The U.S. Dollar lost 0.91% of its value during the last week, with the corresponding index staying mostly around 99.23 over the period. The currency began its depreciation on Tuesday, as investors slashed their Dollar long positions ahead of the FOMC minutes, while positive data from the U.K., Europe and confident BoJ’s comments added to the USD’s losses. The index reached its lowest level in the week on Wednesday, falling to 98.72 immediately after the release of the FOMC minutes. According to the minutes, the Fed officials are concerned over low inflation rate in the U.S., as they had predicted that a strengthening U.S. economy would boost inflation from 1% towards the healthy 2% target, associated with a robust business activity. Harsh winter conditions had stronger impact on the economy, hence, the Fed is projected not to accelerate the pace of the tapering process.
Over the last week the most traded currency pair was almost twice less volatile than the overall market’s volatility, due to a lack of important fundamental data from Europe and the United States. While the elevated volatility on EUR/USD was observed only in 16% of the time, the most volatile currency cross was USD/JPY, as Japanese central bank maintained the current pace of the stimulus programme, sticking to its upbeat assessment of the economy, as the impact of the sales tax is still unclear. Even Kuroda’s comments were able to push pair’s volatility only to 2.1%, however, later, the average volatility stayed around 1.1%, making the pair highly attractive for traders, as the pair moved to 101.32, after a massive sell-off.
Full research available here.
USD currency index was one of the main losers during the last week, posting losses versus seven out of eight other major currencies. The only currency that posted even steeper decline was the loonie. Canadian Dollar plunged 1.21% over the week, as the nation’s building permits for February disappointed markets to the downside, falling most in five months. Moreover, even a more positive picture of Canada’s corporate sector was not able to provide a significant, long-term bullish bias for the loonie. In contrast, the Japanese Yen gained 1.15% over the described period, as the Bank of Japan refrained from additional stimulus, citing stronger growth and a pickup in inflation.
The U.S. Dollar lost 0.91% of its value during the last week, with the corresponding index staying mostly around 99.23 over the period. The currency began its depreciation on Tuesday, as investors slashed their Dollar long positions ahead of the FOMC minutes, while positive data from the U.K., Europe and confident BoJ’s comments added to the USD’s losses. The index reached its lowest level in the week on Wednesday, falling to 98.72 immediately after the release of the FOMC minutes. According to the minutes, the Fed officials are concerned over low inflation rate in the U.S., as they had predicted that a strengthening U.S. economy would boost inflation from 1% towards the healthy 2% target, associated with a robust business activity. Harsh winter conditions had stronger impact on the economy, hence, the Fed is projected not to accelerate the pace of the tapering process.
Over the last week the most traded currency pair was almost twice less volatile than the overall market’s volatility, due to a lack of important fundamental data from Europe and the United States. While the elevated volatility on EUR/USD was observed only in 16% of the time, the most volatile currency cross was USD/JPY, as Japanese central bank maintained the current pace of the stimulus programme, sticking to its upbeat assessment of the economy, as the impact of the sales tax is still unclear. Even Kuroda’s comments were able to push pair’s volatility only to 2.1%, however, later, the average volatility stayed around 1.1%, making the pair highly attractive for traders, as the pair moved to 101.32, after a massive sell-off.