FX Daily Wrap Up

The New Zealand Dollar had steady gains up until a few minutes before 11:00 CST, when a technical correction took place. The Kiwi took a 45-pip loss in under 30 minutes after making steady gains throughout the last several days. The US Dollar had a barrage of fundamental news today. Export Prices posted a .3% change, which is .2% lower than the previous, while Import Prices showed no change for the last month. Initial Claims were reported, with numbers far surpassing estimates to post 357,000 for this past period. The Industrial Production report showed a -.05% net change, and last but not least, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Report showed a 2.3% retraction from the month of December. The overall affect from this hodgepodge of information was a bearish day across the board for the US Dollar. The Yen strengthened across the majors after a stronger-than-expected Japanese growth report, which may be the final piece of the puzzle needed to raise interest rates. The figures revealed that the Japanese GDP grew by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, trumping expectations set at 0.9%. There is a strong possibility that the Bank of Japan will raise rates at next week’s policy meeting. Currently, the USD/JYP pair is hovering at 119.20, the lowest it has been in one month. XPRESSTRADE Analyst David Hilgeman