Article Highlights

  • US consumer credit: $16B vs. $19.5B expected, $18.9B previous
  • US crude oil inventories: 3.1M vs. 2.2M expected, 4.0M previous
  • CA building permits: -3.7% vs. 0.3% expected, 0.7% previous
  • UK NIESR GDP estimates continues to show 0.5% growth
  • UK RICS house price balance: 44% vs. 54% expected, 53% previous
  • Japan core machinery orders, BOJ monthly report on tap
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The dollar gained back some pips against its counterparts, as forex traders settled down from the previous sessions’ volatile moves.

There were no tier 1 reports printed during the session, so it was easy for forex traders to sit back and take some of their short dollar trades off ahead of today’s central bank events. If you haven’t checked your economic calendars, then you should know that the BOE is set to print its monetary policy decision today followed by the FOMC’s meeting minutes some time during the U.S. session.

Traders mostly shrugged off Uncle Sam’s disappointing consumer credit data and still pushed USD/CHF 77 pips higher (+0.80%) to .9733 and EUR/USD a 25 pips lower (-0.22%) to 1.1243. Meanwhile, GBP/USD extended its early London session gains with a 25-pip move (+0.16%) to 1.5328 while USD/JPY inched 13 pips lower (-0.11%) to 119.97.

Even commodity-related currencies lost their grip on the dollar’s selloff. Oil prices fell from its one-month high after the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed higher-than-expected stockpile AND production numbers. Meanwhile, gold prices slipped from its two-week high on the back of overall dollar strength.

AUD/USD ended the session 9 pips lower (-0.13%) to .7214 while USD/CAD jumped by 57 pips (+0.44%) to 1.3064. NZD/USD, which showed a strong rally in the earlier trading sessions, stepped back by 24 pips (-0.36%) to .6608.

Today’s a potentially busy day for Asian session forex traders with China’s markets coming back from a long vacation. Japan could also rock forex price action, as the economy releases its core machinery orders and current account numbers as well as the BOJ’s monthly report over the next couple of hours. These reports don’t usually cause sustained moves, but keep an eye out in case we see bursts of last-minute volatility ahead of the BOE’s decision and the Fed’s meeting minutes.

Good luck and good trading!

See also:

London Session Recap

Bonnie and Clyde, peanut butter and jelly, Kanye West and Kanye West. Some things just go well together.

In forex trading, you get better odds at securing pips when your fundamental analysis is complemented by technical analysis.

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