The US dollar was the strongest currency this week and the strongest currency today. The NZD was the weakest of the majors today.
The strongest to the weakest of the major currencies
The greenback this week, rose against all the major currencies helped by more hawkish Federal Reserve comments, and global concerns about growth in China, the euro zone, and UK due to higher inflation, Covid headwinds, higher US yields and the Ukraine war.
EURUSD fell -217 pips -2.12% on the week (USD higher by 2.12%). The high price was reached on Monday, the low price was today. Yesterday, the pair fell below the lower extreme that confined the pair in July and into early August down to 1.0096. The move tilted the bias even more to the downside and the selling continued into the New York afternoon session where the low price reached 1.0031, just 31 pips from the parity level. Recall in July the low reached 0.9951 before starting the run to the August high at 1.03678.
The GBPUSD also traded at it’s week’s high on Monday (at 1.2147). For the week, the USD rose by 2.56% vs the GBP. After a rebound higher on Tuesday and into Wednesday felll just short of the Monday high (the high reached 1.2142), the buyers turned to sellers and the pair is ending with a 3 day down streak. The low price today reached 1.1791. The low price for the year and going back to March 2020 reached 1.17594. Key support level going into next week’s trading.
The USDJPY after waffling up and down on Monday and ending marginally lower on the day (the low reached 132.54), the pair moved up on each of the subsequent 4 trading days. For the week, the greenback rose 2.52% vs the JPY. The high price today extended to 137.22 which took the pair just above a swing area between 137.00 and 137.152. The price backed off into the close, and is closing just below that area at 136.86. Next week, that area will be a key barometer for trading to start the week.
The USDCHF closed higher on each of its 5 trading days this week (higher dollar). The dollar rose 1.85% vs the CHF.
The AUDUSD (dollar higher by 3.45%) and NZDUSD closed lower each day (higher USD – by 4.33%). The RBNZ rate hike of 50 basis points did little to support the NZD against the greenback..
A snapshot of other markets as the week comes to a close shows:
- Spot gold is down $12 or -0.69% at $1746.89.
- Spot silver is down $-0.46 or -2.39% at $19.04.
- Crude oil is trading near unchanged at $90.02 after an up and down session
- Bitcoin is trading at sharply lower on the day at $21,320. Last Friday, the price closed at $24,407. So for the week the price is down $3087
In the US stock market this week, the major indices close lower for the 1st time in 5 trading weeks:
- Dow industrial average fell -0.1%
- S&P index fell -1.2%
- NASDAQ index fell -2.62%
- Russell 2000 fell -2.92%
In the US debt market:
- 2 year yield is trading at 3.24%. Last Friday it settled at 3.253%
- 5 year is at 3.098% after closing last week at 2.960%
- 10 year is at 2.972% after closing last week at 2.837%
- 30 year is at 3.213% after closing last week at 3.115%
