- USD: Lower, China's PMI rises, optimism about Dubai debt restructuring, pending home sales rise
- JPY: Lower, BOJ expands its funding operations by ¥10trln for three months
- EUR: Higher, EU manufacturing PMI rose to 20 month high, unemployment continues to rise as well
- GBP: Higher, UK PMI unexpectedly declines, house prices rise, warning on UK debt ignored
- CAD and AUD: AUD & CAD higher, RBA hikes interest rates, gold trades at a record high, stocks rally
Overview USD traded lower Tuesday pressured by optimism about the global recovery as China's manufacturing PMI rose at its fastest pace in five years and by optimism about the Dubai World debt. Dubai World says talks with creditors were constructive. Equity markets traded higher and gold rallied to new record high. AUD traded higher supported by RBA rate hike and rising metals prices. European currencies traded higher supported by improving risk appetite. GBP rallied despite report of weaker UK manufacturing PMI and concern about UK government debt. GBP was supported by improving risk appetite and rising UK house prices. JPY traded lower pressured by report that the BOJ held an emergency policy meeting and elected to expand its funding operations. US economic data was mixed with pending home sales rising for the ninth straight month, ISM manufacturing reported weaker than expected and construction spending unchanged. The rise in pending home sales may reflect the impact of a rush to beat the deadline for the home buyer's tax credit. Focus turns to Wednesday's release of US ADP employment report, the ECB meeting Thursday and Friday's release of US November Unemployment. The ECB is expected to leave monetary policy unchanged and announce details of its exit strategy. US unemployment is expected to remain at elevated levels but the pace of nonfarm payroll losses likely continued to slow last month. Today's US data: October construction spending was unchanged, a reading of 0.4% was expected. November ISM drops to 53.6, reading of 55 was expected. October pending home sales rose by 3.7%, Upcoming US data: ADP for November will be released on December 2nd expected at -185k compared to -203 k last month. On December 3rd initial jobless claims for week ending 11/28 will be released expected at 480k compared to 466K last month along with Q3 final productivity and unit labor costs. Productivity is expected at 8.9% and unit labor costs expected -4.7%. November ISM nonmanufacturing index will be released on December 3rd as well expected 51 compared to 50.6 last month. November nonfarm payrolls and unemployment will be released on December 4th with the unemployment rate expected unchanged at 10.2% and nonfarm payrolls expected -145k compared to 190k last month. October factory orders will be released on December 4th expected at 0.2% compared to 0.9% last month. JPY JPY traded lower pressured by improving risk sentiment and report that the BOJ has expanded its funding operations. The improvement in risk sentiment is attributed to report of strong PMI manufacturing data from China and optimism about Dubai debt restructuring. China's PMI rose at its fastest pace in five years. The BOJ has been under significant pressure from the new Japanese government to take actions to boost the Japanese economy and to help limit JPY gains. The BOJ held an emergency meeting last night and elected to expand its funding operations by ¥10trln. Japanese officials have expressed concern about the JPY rise and how the strength of the JPY may impact Japan's inflation outlook and the economy. Japan's Finance Minister Fujii hailed the BOJ action and said it was quantitative easing. Japan's Strategy Minister Kan says that the BOJ action will help slow the JPY rise. The BOJ's new funding operation is small and is unlikely to have any significant impact on deflationary pressures or lasting impact on the Forex markets. The BOJ essentially is offering three-month loans to commercial lenders at 0.1%. Some analysts suggest that he BOJ decision to expand its funding operations was to take some of the recent government pressure off the BOJ. BOJ officials however said that the actions were not related to government pressure. BOJ Governor Shirakawa went on to say that the new funding operations are basically quantitative easing measures. Today's BOJ action may raise questions about the independence of BOJ policy as it appears that the BOJ has caved to Japanese government pressure to take action to try to boost liquidity. In the past central bank independence has been crucial for the support of nation's currency but the BOJ action will likely be seen as a minor capitulation to the Japanese government. JPY trimmed early losses after release of weaker than expected US manufacturing PMI and construction spending. Key technical levels to watch in USD/JPY include support at 85.75 the November 30th low and 84.50 the July 1995 low with resistance at 88.65 the November 25th high. EUR EUR traded higher supported by improving risk appetite as global equity markets and commodities rally in reaction to strong PMI manufacturing data from China and optimism about Dubai World debt restructuring. EUR was also supported by gains in cross trade to the JPY sparked by improving EU manufacturing PMI and the BOJ's announcement of new funding operations. EU November manufacturing PMI rose to a 20 month high at 51.2 compared to 50.7 last month. EU October unemployment however was revised higher to 9.8%. The manufacturing PMI rise suggests that the EU economy is expanding but the scope of that expansion may be limited by persistent high unemployment. Swiss economic data contributes to additional signs of economic recovery in Europe. Swiss November PMI rose to 56.9 compared to 54 last month and Swiss Q3 GDP rose 0.3%. This week's main focus will be the ECB policy meeting Thursday. The ECB is expected to leave interest rate policy unchanged at 1% and outline details of its exit strategy. Monday, the EU reported that CPI rose for the first time in seven months. The rise in EU CPI coupled with today's report of improving PMI data in the EU and Switzerland may encourage the ECB to shift to a slightly more hawkish bias in its monetary policy outlook. Continued high EU unemployment will likely constrain the ECB from aggressive monetary policy tightening anytime soon. On December 2nd EU October PPI will be released expected at -0.2% compared -0.4% last month. The technical outlook for the EUR is positive as the EUR trades above 1.5000. Expect EUR support at 1.4965 the November 30th low with resistance at 1.5145 the November 25th high. GBP GBP traded higher supported by report of a rise in UK house prices and improving risk sentiment as equity markets rally on optimism about restructuring of Dubai World debt. Dubai World is working on restructuring $26bln in debt. November Nationwide house prices rose by 0.5%. Today's GBP rally was impressive in light of the fact UK manufacturing PMI unexpectedly declined last month and Ambrose Evans Pritchard wrote a piece warning about the risk of capital flight out of the UK because of rising UK government debt. UK November manufacturing PMI declined 51.8 compared to 53.4 last month. Monday the UK reported an unexpected decline in consumer confidence. The decline in manufacturing PMI and consumer confidence may generate concern about the UK recovery and increase pressure on the BOE to expand its asset purchases. Mortgage lending rose last month and the rise in November house prices are bright spots for the UK economy The Ambrose Evans Pritchard piece appears in the Daily Telegraph. GBP was also supported by gains in cross trade to the JPY sparked by the BOJ's announcement of new funding operations. Apart from any additional news in regard to the Dubai debt crisis focus will turn next weeks BOE policy meeting. The BOE is expected to hold monetary policy unchanged and the level of its asset purchases unchanged at £200bln. This trade ignored an IMF statement that UK banks are the most exposed to Dubai debt. The technical outlook for GBP is mixed as GBP trades rallies above 1.6500. Expect near-term support at 1.6357 the November 27th low with resistance at 1.6650. CAD CAD traded higher supported improving risk appetite as global equity markets rally and in reaction to firmer commodity prices with crude oil trading back above $78 a barrel and gold trading at a new record high. As noted above strong manufacturing data from China and diminished fears that the Dubai debt crisis presents systemic risk contributed to today's improvement in risk appetite and gains in equity and commodity markets. There were no major Canadian economic reports today. CAD was supported in Monday's trade by the release of Canada's Q3 GDP which confirms that the Canadian economy is emerging from recession. Canada's Q3 GDP rose by 0.4% with exports reported to have risen by 3.6% q/q. Canadian exports are higher despite strength in the CAD. The quarterly export sales rise may help reduce some of the threat of BOC intervention. Canadian officials have expressed concern that the strength of the CAD could choke off the Canadian recovery. Canada's Finance Minister Flaherty said that Canada does not need to take special measures to curb the rise of the CAD that were taken by Japan to try to curb the JPY rise. Last week CAD was supported by report that Russia plans to diversify some reserves to the CAD. Russian officials indicated today that they plan to add CAD to the reserves over the next several months. CAD direction remains closely correlated to the price of commodities and risk sentiment. On December 4th November Ivey PMI will be released expected at 60 compared to 61.2 last month along with November employment. The November unemployment rate is expected to rise to 8.7 from 8.6% of jobs created at 15k. The technical outlook for CAD has improved as USD/CAD trades below 1.0600. Look for near-term support at 1.0415 the November 12th low with resistance at 1.0780 the November 9th high. AUD AUD traded higher supported by improving risk appetite as concern about the Dubai debt crisis recedes. AUD was also supported by an RBA rate hike and a record rise in the price of gold. There is growing confidence that the Dubai debt crisis can be contained. The RBA raised interest rates 25 basis points to 3.75% as expected and said that the global economy is back to growth. The RBA went on to say that 2010 growth should be close to trend and inflation close to target. The AUD also benefits from report that China's manufacturing PMI rose at its fastest pace in five years. China is a major export destination for Australia. AUD was also supported by gains in cross to the JPY sparked by today's news that the BOJ has expanded its funding operations. AUD gains were limited by report of weaker than expected Australian building approvals, PMI data and profit-taking as the RBA rate hike was widely expected. Australia's October building approvals declined by 0.6%, a 1.8% rise was expected. November PMI declined by 0.5 points to 51.2, but unemployment and output posted improvement. Focus turns to Thursday's release of Australia's retail sales. The trade will likely take a closer look at upcoming Australian economic data to gauge whether RBA rate hikes slow the Australian economic recovery. On December 3rd October retail trade will be released expected at 0.6% compared to -0.2% last month. The technical outlook for the AUD is positive as the AUD rises to above 9000. Expect AUD support at 9105 the December 1st low with resistance at 9325 the November 26th high. |