Fed speakers in focus

February 23, 2018

A relatively quiet Friday as far as announcements go, with attention turning to speeches made by US Fed Reserve members.

The EUR/USD traded in a tight range in early trading yesterday as it hit session lows of $1.22584. Later in the night however, the pair jumped almost one cent to reach session highs of $1.23518. It has since come back of those highs a little bit, but still trading above $1.23, currently trading at $1.23323. The same can be said for the GBP/USD, although the moves more gradual. After steadily weakening to session lows of $1.38556, it rebounded and gradually gained more than one cent to reach session highs of $1.39886. It has come off those highs, trading at $1.39546.

The Dow seems to have shaken off the sharp declined that occurred early yesterday morning, climbing for most of the session. After bottoming out in early trading yesterday to session lows of 24,584.23, it spent most of the day regaining those losses to reach session highs of 24,153.15. It has retreated from those highs slightly, currently trading at 25,043.90. The Dax held up reasonably well after dropping to session lows of 12,279.70 early, it started piling on the points as it followed the lead of the Dow. The Dax reached highs of 12,499.22, then pulled back a little bit to be currently trading at 12,427.72.

Looking ahead to today’s activity and the main focus will be centred around speeches by US Fed Reserve members. Speeches are being given by William Dudley, Loretta Mester and John Williams. They are due to speak about topics such as the Fed’s balance sheet and monetary policy objectives. Also set for release is the Fed Reserve’s Monetary Policy Report. Other data set for release today includes:

UK – MPC Member David Ramsden speaks

China – CB Leading Index

Europe – Final & Final Core CPI, German Final GDP

Canada – CPI, Core CPI, Common CPI, Trimmed CPI and Median CPI.

 

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