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Powell is up, yo! Here are catalysts you’ll want to keep your eyes on if you’re trading the dollar this week.

Powell’s testimony

  • Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will talk economy before the House Financial Services Committee on Feb 11, 3:00 pm GMT
  • He will repeat the semi-annual testimony before the Senate Banking Committee on Feb 12, 3:00 pm GMT
  • In its last statement the Fed kept its policies steady and signaled worries over a slow inflation
  • Powell could also talk about the economic impact of Coronavirus

CPI (Feb 13, 1:30 pm GMT)

  • U.S. consumer price index (CPI) slowed down from 0.3% to 0.2% in December
  • Core CPI was also trimmed from 0.2% to 0.1%
  • USD popped higher at the not-so-weak report, but soon went back to its intraweek downtrend
  • Analysts see both the headline and core CPI at 0.2% in January

Retail sales (Feb 14, 1:30 pm GMT)

  • Retail trading grew by 0.3% for a third month in December
  • Core retail sales gained by 0.7% after a stagnating in November
  • The signing of the U.S.-China trade deal at the time brought USD up from its intraweek lows
  • Markets expect headline retail sales to grow by 0.3%, while core retail sales could gain by 0.4% in January

Voting FOMC members’ speeches

  • Michelle Bowman (Feb 10, 1:15 pm GMT) will give a speech titled “Empowering Community Banks” at the American Bankers Association Conference for Community Bankers” in Florida
  • Patrick Harker (Feb 10, 8:15 pm GMT) will talk economic outlook in Delaware
  • Randal Quarles (Feb 11, 5:15 pm GMT) will talk bank supervision in Connecticut
  • Neel Kashkari (Feb 11, 7:15 pm GMT) will speak at a town hall event in Montana
  • Harker (Feb 12, 1:30 pm GMT) will be back to talk economic outlook in Pennsylvania
  • John Williams (Feb 13, 10:30 pm GMT) will participate in a panel discussion in New York
  • Loretta Mester (Feb 14, 4:45 pm GMT) will talk payments modernization in Sarasota

Technical snapshot

  • RSI considers USD as “overbought” against NZD on the daily time frame

  • EUR/USD, AUD/USD, and NZD/USD are all trading below their short and long-term SMAs on the daily
  • USD/CAD is trading above its short and long-term SMAs
  • GBP/USD is trading above its 200 SMA but below its 50, 20, and 5 SMAs. Watch out for potential retracement or reversal opportunities
  • USD/CHF is trading below its 200 SMA but above its 50, 20, and 5 SMAs. Watch out for potential retracement or reversal opportunities

Missed last week’s price action? Read USD’s price recap for February 3 – 7!