USD Volatility
The U.S. Dollar experienced an extremely volatile trading day on Monday, as the New Home Sales data was released from the U.S. economy. The result was a better-than-forecast 384,000 homes versus the previous release of 346,000 homes. This is a whopping 11% increase, the biggest monthly increase since December 2000. This led to many analysts stating that this is the end of the U.S. housing slump. The result led to volatile USD trading. Moreover, the Dollar closed lower against some of its main currency pairs, due to optimistic data from regions such as the Euro-Zone.
At one point in trading the USD actually reached a 7-week low vs. the EUR at 1.4299. This was following the extremely optimistic German consumer confidence figures. However, the pair finally closed 33 pips higher at the 1.4246 level. The USD recorded its second daily loss in a row of 30 pips against the British Pound, as the GBP/USD finished trading at the 1.6484 level. This comes about as optimistic data from Britain continues to drive up the British currency. The USD/JPY pair finished higher, to close at the 95.17 rate. This comes about as the Yen falls from higher risk appetite.
Looking ahead to today, forex traders can expect plenty of news coming out of the U.S. The most important of this being the CB Consumer Confidence figures at 14:00 GMT, the speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at 22:00 GMT, and the speech by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner from 23:00 GMT. These 3 events are set to determine the level of the Dollar as Tuesday’s trading takes off. The big 3 pairs to watch today are the EUR/USD, GBP/USD, and USD/JPY, as traders anticipate a weaker U.S. currency as the U.S. economy continues to recover.
