US Morning Notes - USD mixed, AUD surges on strong employment report |
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Written by Michael J. Malpede
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Thursday, 11 February 2010 12:48 GMT
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FX Highlights
- The USD is trading mixed as the UK Times reports that the EU is on the verge of finalizing a deal to rescue Greece, according to wire reports the details of the rescue plan could come by Tuesday, the fact that it may take this long to see the details of the rescue plan sparked selling of the EUR, AUD surged in reaction to report of much stronger than expected Australian employment growth, lower than expected CPI from China reduces fear of aggressive tightening from China, risk appetite improves with the news on Greece, the strong data from Australia and diminished fear that China will take aggressive measures to curb growth
- Focus turns to today's release of US jobless claims, retail sales and business inventories and Canada's new house price index
- Australia's January unemployment rate falls to 5.3%, a reading of 5.6% was expected, jobs growth at 52k, employment growth of 15k was expected, AUD sharply higher
- China's January consumer prices rose by 1.5%, a 2% rise was expected, China's central bank reaffirms commitment to accommodate monetary policy
- German January wholesale prices rose by 1.3%, EUR lower pressured by a lack of details of the Greek rescue plan
- Swiss January CPI falls by 0.1%, CHF lower
- Fed's Fischer says the recovery remains fragile and the Fed still has work to do with stimulus and he warned that rising fiscal deficits will limit hiring and lending and reduce growth
- The congressional oversight panel says 3000 banks may have to curtail lending because of exposure to commercial real estate loan risk
- Bloomberg survey of economists finds that the majority believes the US unemployment rate has peaked at 10.1% and will fall to 9.5% by year-end
- US equity markets set to open higher, European equities mixed, Nikkei closed for holiday
Upcoming Events
- US - Thursday, initial jobless claims for week ending 02/06 will be released expected at 465k compared to 480k last week along with January retail sales expected at 0.3% compared to -0.3% last month and December business inventories expected at 0.2% compared to 0.4% last month
- CAN - Thursday, December New House Price Index will be released expected at 0.3% compared to 0.4% last month
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