Greenback mixed amid manufacturing and housing data

The greenback was mixed against the majors, declining against the franc, pound, and kiwi but firmer against the yen, euro, Aussie, and Canadian dollar as the Greece debate continued and amid negative U.S. manufacturing and housing data. Minneapolis Fed President and FOMC voting member Kocherlakota spoke and indicated that he favors a 50 bps tightening this year. EUR/USD declined slightly to current levels of around 1.4080 and continues to trade above the psychological 1.4000 level and key 100-day SMA.

U.S. durable goods orders for April disappointed on both the headline (-3.6% vs. exp -2.5%) and excluding transportation (-1.5% vs. exp +0.5%), however the prior month’s figures were revised upwards with the previous headline reading revised to +4.4% from +2.5% and the ex-transportation revised to +2.5% from +1.3%. The data suggests that the manufacturing recovery is beginning to slow. The March housing price index was also released and showed a decline of -0.3% from the prior -1.5% (cons. -0.5%).

U.S. equities stumbled at the open but grinded higher throughout the session to finish the day with decent gains as the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied by about +0.32% and the S&P 500 climbed higher by roughly +0.31%. The precious metals were mixed with gold marginally lower by about -0.06% and silver surging by nearly +3.34%. Crude oil was firmer by around +1.74% despite higher than expected weekly inventory data that showed a surprising rise of 616K barrels (cons. -1500K prior -15K barrels). U.S. 10-yr Treasury yields were choppy and edged higher by about 1 bps to around 3.12%.

On the data front for the upcoming Asia/Pacific session is Japan’s weekly securities investment abroad data, Australian 1Q private capital expenditure and house affordability. New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English is scheduled to speak as well.

Source: Forex.com

25.05.2011