Forex Previews

Swedish krona and Swiss franc charter new ground with negative rates; Canadian dollar hit by oil

Posted on June 10, 2015 at 2:25 pm GMT

Deflation fears pushes Swedish krona to multi-year lows The Swedish krona has been one of the worst performing currencies in the developed world, declining over 12% during the past year. It has been falling against the euro since August 2012 and has depreciated rapidly against the dollar since March 2014, hitting a lot of 8.88 kronor per dollar, though since recovering slightly to around 8.3. Low inflation expectations has been the main driver of the krona’s weakness as Sweden’s [..]

Yen jumps against dollar after Kuroda comments

Posted on June 10, 2015 at 9:21 am GMT

The yen unexpectedly reversed the dollar’s strong rally against the Japanese currency after surprise comments by the Bank of Japan Governor, Haruhiko Kuroda caught markets off-guard. The dollar has been surging higher against the yen since late May, making gains of over 5% to a 13-year high of 125.85. But in a speech at the Japanese parliament’s lower house financial affairs committee, Kuroda said that the yen’s real effective exchange rate is “very weak” and further falls were unlikely. The [..]

Peso, Rand and Lira out of favour as US rate rise looms

Posted on June 9, 2015 at 11:45 am GMT

South African Rand expected to weaken further in 2015 The South African rand has been steadily weakening against the US dollar since the second half of 2011 as economic growth has fallen below the African average after the 2008 recession. The rand has fallen to around 12.5 rand per dollar in June, its weakest level this year. Despite a rebound in mining output in the first quarter of 2015, the South African economy has been plagued by power shortages, which [..]

Russian rouble and Norwegian krone to track oil’s path

Posted on June 8, 2015 at 1:10 pm GMT

Rouble recovers from close to collapse but geopolitical tensions still a threat The rouble has made a remarkable recovery in 2015 after slumping to around 80 roubles per dollar in late 2014 from around 35 roubles per dollar before the crisis. It has managed to overcome the double shock of plummeting oil prices and geopolitical uncertainty around the Ukraine conflict and the annexation of Crimea. The Russian central bank was forced to raise interest rates by 6.5% to 17% in [..]

Dollar powers ahead after strong May payrolls data

Posted on June 5, 2015 at 1:56 pm GMT

US non-farm payrolls increased by 280,000 in May, following a downwardly revised 221,000 increase in April. This was the highest figure since December and comes above estimates of 226,000. The unemployment rate edged up slightly though to 5.5% as the number of people entering the workforce and looking for jobs increased. This compares with estimates that it would stay unchanged at 5.4%. Average hourly earnings also picked up pace increasing by 0.3% in May from the previous month, giving an [..]

Week Ahead – Industrial production and Chinese data to come in focus

Posted on June 5, 2015 at 11:08 am GMT

The coming week will see key industrial production figures released for April as well as revised GDP data for the Eurozone and Japan. But China will also be in focus as trade and inflation figures will be published alongside industrial production data. China will begin the week with the release of trade balance figures for May. This, and the industrial production data out on Thursday will be closely watched as fears of a sharper-than-expected slowdown in the Chinese economy remain [..]

Euro, bond yields rally as ECB keeps QE policy steady

Posted on June 3, 2015 at 2:26 pm GMT

The European Central Bank kept its policy rates unchanged as well as its pace of quantitative easing since the Eurozone economy was continuing its recovery and inflation was also picking up. The ECB upgraded its inflation forecast for 2015 to 0.3% from 0% back in March, mainly as the price of oil has picked up. Inflation rates for 2016 and 2017 are forecast to be 1.5% and 1.8% respectively. GDP growth was forecast to be 1.5% for 2015 and 1.9% [..]

Australian GDP growth outstrips forecasts as exports jump

Posted on June 3, 2015 at 10:30 am GMT

Australia’s GDP grew by 0.9% in the first quarter of this year compared to the last quarter of 2014, defying consensus estimates that it would grow by 0.7%. This gives it a year-on-year growth of 2.3%, one of the highest in the developed world. The stronger-than-expected growth comes as a surprise as the Reserve Bank of Australia had warned of downside risks from the collapse in commodity prices, as well as from a noticeable slowdown in China’s economy, which is [..]

Eurozone flash CPI rises by more than expected in May

Posted on June 2, 2015 at 11:32 am GMT

Flash CPI figures out this morning for the Eurozone showed consumer prices rising by more than expected in the Euro area in May. Annual inflation in the Eurozone came in with a reading of 0.3% for May in the flash estimates. This compares with an annual rate of 0% in April. Consensus estimates in a Reuters poll were for a figure of 0.2%. Core CPI, excluding energy, food and alcohol & tobacco, also came in above estimates in May at [..]

RBA keeps rates unchanged but absence of easing bias boosts aussie

Posted on June 2, 2015 at 9:52 am GMT

The Reserve Bank of Australia kept its overnight cash rate unchanged at 2% at its June meeting today as expected. Having cut the cash rate by 0.25% in the previous month, the RBA is adopting a wait-and-see policy if further cuts would be needed as commodity prices remain weak and economic growth is below the long-term average. In his statement, RBA Governor Glenn Stevens said that although household spending is higher and exports are rising, business capital spending remains weak [..]

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