As far as Friday’s go, it is reasonably quiet on the data front, but the end of the week tends to bring with it volatility.

The EUR/USD strengthened overnight, pushing well into $1.19 territory. The pair opened at lows of $1.18430 before steadily climbing throughout the day. The pair spiked around the time that the US CPI came out (which missed expectations), weakening the USD, sending the pair higher. It peaked at $1.19457 then pulled back to $1.18739 as the currencies settled down after the CPI announcement. It regained some of those late losses to be currently trading at $1.19146. It was a different story for the GBP/USD after the pound was rocked by an interest rate meeting in the UK. The pair started the session well, climbing to a high of $1.36172, then the interest rate meeting happened. Forecast weaknesses in the UK economy sent the pound tumbling down. A brief spike up after the US CPI was released was not enough to save it from plummeting to lows of $1.34584. However, it was able to recover some of those losses, currently trading at $1.35207.

The Dow put in another solid showing yesterday. After weakening early, it reached session lows of 24,503.82 before taking off for most of the session. The rally sent the Dow to a high of 24,792.93. It has come off those highs, trading at 24,744.10. The Dax continued its good form of late. After spiking to 12,033.85 early, it reversed those gains to slide to session lows of 12,928.40. From there, it turned it all around again as it rallied to highs of 12,036.40. It closed not far off those highs at 12,031.00.

The day ahead is relatively quiet for announcements, but that does not mean that traders should take their eye off the ball. Friday has an uncanny knack of being a volatile trading day as traders and investors position themselves for the last trading day of the week. Many people tend to close their positions before markets close so as to not carry open positions leading into the weekend. Many traders do this to avoid the potential “market gap” that occurs if a major event occurs when the markets are closed. This means markets could open on Monday at a significantly different price to the one it closed at on Friday. As for the data that is due out today, this includes:

Australia – Home Loans

Europe – ECB President Mario Draghi speaks

US – Prelim UoM Consumer Sentiment & Inflation Expectations, Import Prices

Canada – Employment Change, Unemployment Rate, BoC Governing Council Member Carolyn Wilkins speaks

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