U.S. Dollar touched a new 6-year high against the Japanese Yen and a 2-year high against the Euro this morning as we’ve entered in the Non Farm Payroll week. The U.S. Commerce Department raised its estimate of GDP at 4.6% last Friday, the highest for the last 2 ½ years.
USD/JPY traded as high as 109.74 earlier this morning, continuing its run against the Yen. The first target level for the pair remains at 110.65, August 2008 (pre-Lehman Brothers) peak, not too far from its current rate.
EUR/USD traded lower this morning down to 1.2662, 3 pips away from November’s 2012 trough. The support area here, is the last support before 1.2286 (May’s 2012 low) and 1.2041 (July’s 2012 low) thereafter.
The U.S Dollar remains firm against all the major currencies. On the other hand the worse performer of recent weeks, the New Zealand Dollar, remained under pressure this morning, after Reserve Bank of New Zealand data showed that the central bank sold the currency on the open market last month.
NZD/USD is now trading at 0.7758, having traded earlier this morning (on the release of the report) down to 0.7707. The pair is down -8% this month, and -12% since last July (from its historical high at 0.8845). The RBNZ is clearly trying to reverse the long-term strengthening of its currency in an effort to boost exports and competitiveness of the New Zealand economy.
Today’s economic calendar includes German inflation data to be released at 12:00 GMT, and U.S. Personal Income and Consumption data to be released at 12:30 GMT. Later tonight, Japanese Jobless data and Household Spending will provide an insight in Japanese Economy at 23:30 GMT, whereas GfK U.K. Consumer Confidence Survey will be released at 23:05 GMT.
Disclaimer: Nothing in this communication contains, or should be considered as containing, an investment advice or an investment recommendation or a solicitation for the purpose of purchase or sale of any financial instrument.