Morning brief for March 24
The US dollar regained some losses in the Tokyo session as Trump still didn’t get a vote on his healthcare bill. Yesterday U.S. President said to lawmakers that he wants a vote (up or down) today. Otherwise, he will have to leave Obamacare in place and move forward with tax reform. It seems that Donald Trump is a Rolling Stones fan as he learned their lesson “You can’t always get what you want” well. The vote on the new healthcare legislation has been seen by financial markets as a test of Trump's ability to work with Congress to deliver on other parts of his agenda (government procurements, infrastructure spending, tax cuts and other fiscal expansionary measures). In addition to this healthcare conundrum, we got a Reuters report stating that the US Administration is preparing a streak of new executive orders to re-examine all 14 US free trade agreement. The NAFTA agreement is on the top of the list. In the near-term, we might see Mexican peso and Loonies bleeding.
The euro traded lower in the course of the past session. EUR/USD dropped to 1.0765. The pair is still going through the consolidation phase moving in a tight range of 1.0705/1.0825. A move towards 1.0870 is not ruled out. On the downside, there is a sturdy support at 1.0735 (50-H4 MA). if it’s tested, it will be a signal of the downtrend restoration. Today’s focus will be on the French, German, Austrian preliminary PMI. The consensus forecasts promise strong readings. Solid economic releases will be supportive for the European currency.
USD/JPY slumped to 110.60 overnight. In the early hours of Tokyo session, the yen succumbed to USD after BoJ’s Governor Kuroda said that he sees no reason to reduce monetary easing now. He also added that the BoJ’s policy-makers are not going to raise yield target at the present moment until the bank’s inflation target is hit. The traders should pay closer attention to the US durable goods today.
Aussie fell to 0.7615 in the past sessions. The move was not triggered by any specific news. A deeper pullback towards 0.7600/0.7555 level is not ruled out. If AUD manages to reclaim 0.7700 we will be able to conclude that the downward pressure has eased.
The British pound was the top performer in the previous session. It spiked above 1.2530 overnight as we received a better than expected retail sales release from the UK. In the Tokyo morning, GBP has ceded its ground to the greenback. It seems that the bullish phase has started to phase out. The immediate support can be found at around 1.2415.
USD/CAD picked up to 1.3368 on the session. The market participants will be waiting for the inflation data from Canada coming at 14:30 pm MT time. Oil prices hit their three-months lows ($50.70) on investor concerns that OPEC-led supply cuts are not leading to the reduction of US oil stockpiles.