U.S. Session Forex Recap – Dec. 11, 2015

Article Highlights

U.S. initial jobless claims at 282K vs. 266K expected, 269K previous
U.S. import prices down by 0.4% vs. projected 0.8% decline
U.S. natural gas storage down by 76 billion cubic ft.

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Is risk appetite back on? Higher-yielding currencies pulled up for air in their latest forex dive when commodity prices bounced, but the Loonie was left behind.

Major Events:

U.S. energy supplies drop – Following the recently reported decline in crude oil inventories, the U.S. Energy Information Administration indicated a larger than expected decline in natural gas storage. This put a bit of upward pressure on energy prices, including that of crude oil and other related commodities.

WTI crude oil is holding steady just slightly below the $37/barrel level while Brent crude oil is fighting to keep its head above the $40/barrel mark. In other commodity news, gold is cruising sideways at $1,072/ounce while is treading carefully above $14.100/ounce.

Mixed U.S. data – The latest batch of U.S. reports did very little to push the dollar in a clear direction, as results turned out mixed. Initial jobless claims stood at 282K, higher than the projected 266K figure and the previous 269K reading. On the other hand, import prices printed a smaller than expected 0.4% drop versus the estimated 0.8% decline.

Major Currency Movers:

CAD – It looks like there’s no stopping the Loonie’s slide, as it dropped to fresh lows against the U.S. dollar and chalked up more losses to its forex peers.

USD/CAD found support near the 1.3550 minor psychological level and is up 45 pips to 1.3624 (+0.33%), CAD/JPY resumed its tumble and is down 16 pips to 89.26 (-0.18%), and AUD/CAD is up 110 pips to .9925 (+1.12%).

EUR – Are the euro’s rallies over? The shared currency is returning some of its recent forex gains after hitting key resistance levels on some charts.

EUR/USD is down 83 pips to 1.0941 (-0.76%), EUR/JPY is down 78 pips to the 133.00 handle (-0.59%), EUR/GBP is down 39 pips to .7219 (-0.53%), EUR/NZD is down 181 pips to 1.6210 (-1.10%), and EUR/AUD is down 227 pips to 1.5018 (-1.49%).