Saturday, September 27, 2014

MarketWatch: "The U.S. Dollar Reached 85.6490 Friday Afternoon"

MarketWatch: "The U.S. Dollar Reached 85.6490 Friday Afternoon"

9/26/2014
LONDON (MarketWatch) — The U.S. Dollar Index finished higher Friday, notching its 11th-consecutive weekly gain, extending its longest winning streak since the currency became free-floating in 1973.

The U.S. Dollar Index DXY, +0.52% reached 85.6490 Friday afternoon, compared to 85.1950 late Thursday. It benefitted from an upward revision to U.S. second-quarter GDP data released Friday morning.

Positive GDP data. showing the U.S. economy enjoyed its best performance since the recession ended in mid-2009, helped drive the buck higher. Increased exports and business investment contributed to the revision from an previous 4.2% growth estimate.

“While [the dollar rally] is undoubtedly the strongest trend in the market right now, there are risks to the buck’s rally heading into next week,” said Matthew Weller, senior technical analyst at FOREX.com.
....
A host of economic data will come to bear including the jobs report.

If next Friday’s non-farm payrolls report comes in below 200,000 like it did in August, investors could sour on the currency, Weller said.

The dollar USDJPY, +0.49% at 109.29 yen Friday, just below a six-year record against the yen.

The pair closed at ¥108.56 late Thursday.
In a research note on Friday, MacNeil Curry, head of global technical strategy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said it appears that the dollar has resumed its bullish trend against the yen after two weeks of relatively flat trading.

“With Treasuries threatening to resume their bearish trend, [the dollar/yen cross] looks set to resume its larger bull trend. Indeed, we are impressed by the manner in which the pair has held its ground as equities have sold off.

A break of 109.36 confirms a resumption of the larger bull trend, targeting 110.67, ahead of 112.42,” Curry said.

The euro EURUSD, -0.53% hit a fresh 22-month low against the dollar, trading at $1.2677 Friday afternoon, down from $1.2759 Thursday evening. The shared currency is also down against the pound EURGBP, -0.07% , as investors are selling it ahead of the monthly European Central Bank meeting next Thursday.

“After surprising us with those rate cuts and a program of asset-backed security (ABS) purchases (basically QE-lite) last month, we doubt the ECB will pull the trigger on more policy actions at this meeting,” said Matthew Weller, a senior technical analyst with Forex.com, referring to quantitative easing measures being employed by European central banks.

“Without any new policy actions to hide behind, the ECB could find itself with some tricky questions to answer, which ultimately could weigh on the EUR,” Weller added.

Meanwhile, the Russian ruble fell to a record low against the dollar Friday, pressured by the weakening price of oil, one of Russia’s largest exports. The ruble USDRUB, +1.75% traded at 2.55 cents Friday, compared to 2.6 cents Thursday evening.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dollar-index-heads-for-11th-straight-weekly-gain-2014-09-26?link=sfmw


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