Article Highlights

  • U.S. JOLTS job openings up from 5.35M to 5.61M in Dec
  • API crude oil stockpiles up by 2.4 million barrels
  • Japanese PPI down by 3.1% vs. -2.8% forecast
  • Australia’s Westpac consumer sentiment rose by 4.2%
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Another mixed day for the dollar as it lost further ground to the euro and yen while struggling to stay afloat against the commodity currencies. What in the forex world is going on?!

Major Events:

Mixed low-tier U.S. data – With barely any major catalysts on deck, the Greenback was left to act mostly as a counter currency in yesterday’s New York session. Still, it’s worth noting that the JOLTS job openings report for December indicated a gain from 5.35 million to 5.61 million positions while the NFIP small business index slid from 95.2 to 93.9 in January.

Another increase in oil inventories – Crude oil was still down in the dumps after the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported an increase of 2.4 million barrels in stockpiles. This suggests that the U.S. crude oil inventories report from the Energy Information Administration due today might show a similar gain.

WTI crude oil is down to $28.37/barrel and Brent crude oil is down to $30.73/barrel. Analysts expect the EIA crude oil inventories report to show an increase of 3.1 million barrels, possibly pushing the commodity price lower again. Law of Supply and Demand yo.

Major Currency Movers:

USD – The Greenback had a pretty volatile run, as it spiked here and there but ended mostly lower against its forex rivals.

USD/JPY carried on with its slump and is now trading below the 115.00 handle, EUR/USD popped up to a high of 1.1339 after a brief consolidation below 1.1200, GBP/USD made a quick bounce to a high of 1.4515, and AUD/USD fell to a low of .6974 before recovering to .7050.

JPY – Yen pairs enjoyed some profit-taking earlier on when risk appetite appeared to improve but quickly returned their recent gains.

EUR/JPY rallied to test the resistance at the 130.00 handle before falling to 129.39, GBP/JPY pulled up to a high of 166.73 then fell to a low of 165.70, AUD/JPY is consolidating below the 81.00 mark, and CAD/JPY retreated to a high of 83.69 before falling to 82.40.

Watch Out For:

  • 12:00 am GMT: Australia’s HIA new home sales (-2.7% previous)

See more:

Asian Session Recap

London Session Recap

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