Strongest and weakest for Aug 10th as NA traders enter for the day
The snapshot of the strongest and weakest currencies as NA traders enter for the day are showing that the JPY is the strongest currency while the NZD is the weakest. The JPY may be getting a bid on some stock/geopolitical concerns. No. Korea says they will send some missiles toward (US territory) Guam and calls the President's "fire and fury" threat, "a load of nonsense". The RBNZ statement was released and the central bank did look to talk the NZD down. After rising initially (HMMMM), it started to ratchet lower and lower.
Looking at the changes and ranges, the NZD pairs are trading near the extremes and also has the biggest trading ranges. The other major currency pairs are all trading below their 22-day average ranges (about a month of trading). We've seen lower volatility, but also seen better.
At 8:30 AM ET/1230 GMT, the US initial claims are expected to come in at 240K. The 4 week average is 241.75. So that is par for the course. Also, US PPI wil be released with headline expected to be up 0.1% (vs +0.1% last), and ex food and energy at +0.2% (vs 0.1% last). The YoY is expected at 2.2% and 2.1% respectively.
In other markets today:
- Spot gold is up $3.80 or 0.30% to 1281.02. This follows a $15+ gain yesterday. Global tension cited.
- WTI Crude is up $0.39 or 0.81% to $49.96. The high is at $49.98 so the black gold is pushing the key $50 at the NY opening
- US yields are down less than 1 bp acorss the curve.
- US pre-opening stock futures are lower. S&P is down -9.0 Dow futures are down -50 points and Nasdaq futures are down -34.50 points.
