Category: Currencies

The Biggest Banks Pay For Foreign Exchange Market Fixing

Suppose you’re in the supermarket shopping for groceries. While you’re strolling the aisle with your cart, a shadowy figure looms over your shoulder and changes the prices on the items you want to buy before you get a chance to pick them up.

As you reach for some vine tomatoes, you notice the price just jumped 20 cents. When you select some brie from among the cheeses, you witness the number on the sticker change right before your eyes. Ditto when you look for your favorite brand of granola.

A Slumping Yen Trumps a Better Dollar Bid

While the US dollar has come back bid today, the real story is the drop in the Japanese yen.  The yen is off almost 1% against the US dollar and nearly as much against the euro.  The greenback poked through the JPY116 level, after having dipped barely and briefly through JPY114 yesterday.  For its part, the euro has bounced from JPY142 yesterday to nearly JPY144 today. 

Supportive Fundamentals Exist While Dollar Technicals Stretch

The underlying driver of the foreign exchange market is the divergence between the US and the other high-income countries.  This was underscored in the past couple of weeks.  Between the BOJ and the government’s pension fund, monetary stimulus and capital outflows are set to accelerate from the world’s third largest economy. 

A mixed U.S. dollar Pre-Jobs Data and other News

The US dollar is narrowly mixed as the market awaits for North American jobs data to close out the week.  It has been another good week for the greenback.  It has appreciated against all the major and emerging market currencies.  

A Currency Review and Futures Report

The US dollar had a good week to close out October.  It was bolstered to new highs against the euro and yen.  It is driven by both positive developments in the US and negative developments in Europe and Japan.  

China Presses on with Renminbi Internationalization

Over the past several decades, we have seen how China’s high economic growth and increasing economic integration with other countries have led to a dramatic increase in its clout in global output and trade.

Getting Technical with the Dollar

If the worst of the market panic is behind us, it is worthwhile exercise to see what the charts are saying about the dollar. One advantage of technical analysis is that the fundamental causes and considerations behind the large moves need not be determined.  

Heavy Trading in the Dollar Starts Off the Week in Currencies

The US dollar is trading heavier against most of the major and emerging market currencies. The euro and sterling remain within the ranges seen before the weekend while dollar slipped to JPY107 in a Tokyo-less Asian session. 

The Dollar Correction May or May Not Be Over and Other Currency Moves

Last week was of two halves.  The dollar correctly lower through midweek and then recovered.  While the dollar’s losses were pared, it still managed to fall against nearly all the major currencies.  However, it finished the week on a firm note, and although it appears poised to move higher in the week ahead, it is not immediately clear that new high is imminent.