Forex Major Currencies Outlook (Jan 27 – Jan 31)

USD

President Trump has reiterated his threat to impose tariffs on European cars. Treasury secretary Mnuchin stated that government has started working on Tax Cut 2.0 that will focus on middle class. The fear of coronavirus is gripping the markets. In Chinese city of Wuhan the virus has already killed 25 people and infected more than 600 people. The virus is said to spread with human contact. The Chinese Lunar New Year is approaching and it is the largest human migration in the world, mass travel is expected which only increases concerns. One instance of coronavirus has been discovered in Seattle, two more have been confirmed later on while there are fears that it can also be found at the Davos meeting. Risk appetite in the markets has been subdued. Beijing announced that they will be cancelling all major events, including the New Year celebrations because of the new outbreak. Currently 10 Chinese cities have been closed due to the virus.

This week we will have housing, durable goods and consumer confidence data as well as Fed’s preferred inflation measure with personal spending and income. Q4 GDP will be published as well. No changes are expected in the rate, however chairman Powell’s words will be closely watched and analysed as always.

Important news for USD:

Monday

• New Home Sales

Tuesday:

• Durable Goods Orders
• CB Consumer Confidence Index

Wednesday:

• Fed Interest Rate Decision
• FOMC Press Conference

Thursday:

• GDP

Friday:

• PCE

EUR

First data published in the new year 2020 paints an improving picture for both Germany and Eurozone. ZEW survey of the current situation in Germany came in at -9.5 vs -19.9 the previous month. Expectations for Germany came in at 26.7 vs 10.7 the previous month while expectations for Eurozone came in at 25.6 vs 11.2 the previous month. The jump is mainly due to the US-China trade deal, giving rise to hope that the negative effects from trade on the German economy will be less pronounced. The jump is mainly due to the US-China trade deal, giving rise to hope that the negative effects from trade on the German economy will be less pronounced, according to ZEW.

ECB has left the key rates unchanged as was expected. President Lagarde stated that incoming data are in line with baseline scenario. Manufacturing remains a drag on the economy while employment growth supports it. There are some signs of an increase in inflation and they are in line with expectations. After initial rise EURUSD returned all of its gains and continued to slide downwards indicating that bears are in control.

Preliminary January manufacturing PMI came in at 47.8 vs 46.3 the previous month. Services PMI came in at 52.2 vs 52.8 the previous month while composite came unchanged at 50.9. German readings beat the expectations while in France only manufacturing improved, services and composite declined but are still above 50 level.

This week we will have economic health indicators, preliminary Q4 GDP and January CPI readings.

Important news for EUR:

Monday:

• Ifo Business Climate (Germany)

Thursday:

• Economic Sentiment Indicator
• Business Climate Indicator
• Consumer Confidence Index

Friday:

• GDP
• CPI

GBP

November employment data showed an increase in employment change to 208k vs 110k as expected. The unemployment rate and average weekly earnings both stayed the same at 3.8% and 3.2% 3m/y respectively. The stable wages growth increases the probability of inflation picking up down the road. After last week’s weak data this is a much needed positive for pound and it rallied on the news across the markets. The trouble is that the employment data is a very outdated, since it is for November, so the rally may be short-lived. Preliminary January PMI data showed improvement in all readings. Manufacturing came in at 49.8 vs 48.8 as expected, services jumped to 52.9 vs 51.1 as expected and propelled composite back to expansion territory at 52.4 vs 49.3 the previous month.

The UK will officially leave EU on January 31, it will however still remain a member until the end of 2020 when the transition period expires. OIS was pricing less than a 50% chance of a rate cut on the back of improvement in business optimism and the probability came tumbling down after the upbeat PMI figures. This will be governor Carney’s last meeting before he steps down.

Important news for GBP:

Thursday:

• BOE Interest Rate Decision
• BOE Monetary Policy Report

AUD

Employment report for December showed employment change of 28.9k vs 10k as expected. The unemployment rate has ticked down to 5.1% from 5.2% the previous month which in turn will not push RBA to cut rates at the February meeting. The probability of a cut has dropped to 23%. The participation rate stayed at 66%. Part-time employment came in at 29.2k while full-time employment came in at -0.3k.

This week we will have Q4 inflation from Australia and official PMI data from China.

Important news for AUD:

Wednesday:

• CPI

Friday:

• Manufacturing PMI (China)
• Non-Manufacturing PMI (China)
• Composite PMI (China)

NZD

GDT price index came in at 1.7%. This comes after the rise of 2.8% at the previous auction, thus making both auctions in 2020 positive. Q4 CPI came in at 0.5% q/q vs 0.4% q/q as expected and 1.9% y/y vs 1.8% y/y as expected. The upbeat results pushed NZD higher and will keep RBNZ on hold.

This week we will have trade balance data.

Important news for NZD:

Wednesday:

• Trade Balance

CAD

CPI in December came in unchanged at 2.2% y/y vs 2.3% y/y as expected. Core measures were mixed with median coming in 2.2% y/y vs 2.4% y/y the previous month, trimmed came in at 2.1% y/y vs 2.2% y/y the previous month while common came in at 2% y/y vs 1.9% y/y the previous month. Both headline and core readings are above 2% and although the report was bit weaker than expected it will help keep CAD supported. The same cannot be said for wholesale trade which in November came in at -1.2% m/m vs -0.4% m/m as expected and weakened the CAD into the BOC rate decision. Finally, November retail sales came in at 0.9% m/m vs 0.6% m/m as expected for a great rebound from -1.1% m/m the previous month. Ex-autos category came in at 0.2% m/m vs 0.5% m/m as expected but overall consumption report was a solid one.

BOC left the key rate unchanged at 1.75% as widely expected, however the tone of the statement was more dovish than expected. The previous statement had a description of key rate as appropriate and that was removed in the current statement. Governor Poloz said that it was not time to cut rates at this meeting, but the change in tone around the key rates opens the door for possible rate cuts in the future. Incoming data will be closely watched for clues “to see if recent growth slowdown is more persistent than forecast”. The Canadian economy is no longer operating close to capacity which will put downward pressure on inflation and indicators of consumer confidence and spending have been unexpectedly soft, it is said in the statement.

This week we will have monthly GDP data.

Important news for CAD:

Friday:

• GDP

JPY

BOJ left the interest rate at -0.1% and kept the monetary policy unchanged as widely expected. In their forecasts they have raised the outlook for growth based on fiscal stimulus and positive effect of the summer Olympic Games that will be held in Tokyo and lowered the outlook for inflation as well as for business investment. Since inflation is still well below the 2% target loose monetary policy will be prevalent for longer period of time. According to the quarterly outlook report the economy continue to expand moderately and will be impacted by the global slowdown. Risks have been assessed as skewed toward the downside for the economy and prices.

Trade Balance data in December came in at -JPY152.5bn vs -JPY85.2bn the previous month. Exports have improved a bit to -6.3% y/y vs -7.9% y/y the previous month while imports showed a bigger improvement, but still negative, coming in at -4.9% y/y vs -15.7% y/y the previous month. Exports to the US and EU were the main drag coming in at -14.9% y/y and -8.1% y/y respectively with exports to China rising for the first time in 10 months, although only 0.8% y/y.

CPI in December came in at 0.8% y/y vs 0.7% y/y as expected and 0.5% y/y the previous month. Core measures came in line with expectations but also up from the previous month coming at 0.7% y/y (ex-fresh food) and 0.9% y/y (ex-fresh food and energy). Sales tax hike was the main reason inflation went up. Preliminary manufacturing PMI for January came in at 49.3 vs 48.4 the previous month. Services staged a recovery back to boom level coming in at 52.1 vs 49.4 the previous month which pushed composite PMI to 51.1 from 48.6 the previous month.

This week we will have inflation data for Tokyo area, unemployment and consumption data as well as preliminary December industrial production data.

Important news for JPY:

Friday:

• Tokyo CPI
• Unemployment Rate
• Retail Sales
• Industrial Production

CHF

SNB Maechler reiterated the bank’s readiness to intervene in the FX market if the need arises adding that SNB conducts policy that is most appropriate for economic conditions in Switzerland and their policy is not fazed by the US decision to put them on currency watch list. Governor Jordan added that negative rates are a necessity and although they have negative effects SNB is working to minimize them.

This week we will have trade balance and consumption data.

Important news for CHF:

Tuesday:

• Trade Balance

Friday:

• Retail Sales

_{You can follow all economic events on the Economic Calendar page on our Website. MT4 server time is set to GMT+2 and if you need assistance converting MT4 server time to your local time you can use some of the online time converters such as WorldTimeBuddy.}

_{Please note that this analysis should not be used as investing advice as it is only an overview of the economic events influencing the markets.Please remember that MT4.VAR. and MT4.ECN. accounts have Market Execution. Please note how Execution works during high impact news and other times of low liquidity.}