World Market Pulse FX Update: Dollar Drive Amid Housing Data And Geithner Remarks

By world market pulse team on October 19,2010


The US dollar had its worst month since May 2009 against a basket of currencies. In fact for the last six weeks the US dollar has slid lower relentlessly on speculation that the Federal Reserve would embark on a further stimulus program to liven up the flagging US economy. In fact the US dollar index despite making new 8 month lows actually finished the day higher than when it started after the Fed chairman Bernanke's speech on Friday underlined the inevitability of such a move in the near future. The Dollar index however lost some ground towards the end of the day as doubts remained about the scale and the extent of any easing at next months Fed meeting. The US dollar did however gain some late support from some comments by US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who stated in Paolo Alto that the US would not seek to devalue the dollar saying, "It is not a viable, feasible strategy and we will not engage in it.”

Low US Industrial Production: Meanwhile a worse then expected US industrial production figures for September at -0.2% against an expectation of a 0.2% gain, seems to reinforce the case for additional stimulus measures and saw the US dollar slide back from the highs of the day, especially against the euro as 10 year bond yields closed in the single currency’s favor for the first time in 10 months

Improved Home Builder Confidence: The dollar improved across the board following today’s improvement in the housing market survey. All three of the HMI’s components registered gains in October. The index of current sales conditions improved by 3 points to 16, the index for sales expectations for the next 6-months rose 5 points to 23 and the index gauging traffic of prospective buyers rose 2 points to 11. The improved data gave investors an excuse to lay off the buck as it briefly put into question the extent of Fed easing.

Some of the other potential catalysts that can act for a positive Dollar Index are discussed here.

A Case For A Positive US Data Triggering Dollar Index:

Linking Economic Data Release And USD

According to BNP Economic Research, US economists tend to react quickly to data releases. When data comes in weak, expectations are scaled back lower, increasing the chance of data exceeding expectations. Hence, the surprise indicator becomes very erratic. Hence, months of positive data surprises are often followed by a months with negative data surprises. Only, when there were severe growth deteriorations as in autumn 2006, summer 2008 and the May – July period of this year will the surprise indicator run negative readings for several months. US growth expectations have been scaled down suggesting that it will not take a lot to exceed low expectations.

ETFs Investment Options include

Rydex CurrencyShares Euro Currency Trust (FXE): The EUR/USD exchange rate is a foreign exchange spot rate that measures the relative values of two currencies, the euro and the U.S. dollar.

FXE Tracks: Euro Index. Expense Ratio: 0.40%

PowerShares DB USD Index (UDN): The Index is a rules-based index composed solely of short USDX futures contracts. The USDX futures contract is designed to replicate the performance of being short the US Dollar against the following currencies: Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Swedish Krona and Swiss Franc.

Expense Ratio: 0.40%

iPath GBP/USD Exchange Rate ETN (GBB): The GBP/USD exchange rate is a foreign exchange spot rate that measures the relative values of two currencies, the British pound and the U.S. dollar.

Expense Ratio: 0.40%

iPath EUR/USD Exchange Rate ETN (ERO): The EUR/USD exchange rate is a foreign exchange spot rate that measures the relative values of two currencies, the euro and the U.S. dollar.

Expense Ratio: 0.40%

For More World Market Pulse ETFs stocks futures commodities forex indicators forecast http://worldmarketpulse.com/

Analysing Us Dollar Rebound Post Bernanke's Speech

By world market pulse team on October 18,2010

The US dollar had its worst month since May 2009 against a basket of currencies. In fact for the last six weeks the US dollar has slid lower relentlessly on speculation that the Federal Reserve has no choice left but to embark on a further stimulus program to liven up the flagging US economy. Forex experts are of the opinion that Fed chairman Bernanke's speech on Friday underlined the inevitability of such a move in the near future with the US dollar index despite making new 8 month lows actually finished the day higher than when it started. Friday’s move off trend line support at 76.10 from the all-time lows in March 2008 at 70.70 in the US dollar index has provoked some short covering beyond 77.00, but it would need a break above 78.00 to really get things going.

Although most experts agree that the drop in the dollar was mainly due to the Federal Reserve’s willingness to continue quantitative easing. An excess supply of dollars obviously leads to a fall in its value. Some traders attribute the dollar’s fall to the increase in risk appetite. This analysis does not ring true as the price of gold is making new highs, which actually signals risk aversion.

The movement in the dollar index has a lot of effect on commodities and other currencies, even if it does not replicate the action of the index but the USD needs some sort of a trigger mechanism to come out of its negative sluggish cycle.

EUR-USD: Friday’s late slide in the single currency and failure to close above 1.4000 suggests that we could well see a correction lower after the gains of recent weeks. A new high at 1.4155, just shy of the 1.4195 resistance soon gave way to a sharp sell-off closing below the 1.4000 level and generating a daily dark cloud cover candlestick reversal.

Some of the other potential catalysts that can act for a positive Dollar Index are dicussed here.
Linking Economic Data Release And USD

According to BNP Economic Research, US economists tend to react quickly to data releases. When data comes in weak, expectations are scaled back lower, increasing the chance of data exceeding expectations. Hence, the surprise indicator becomes very erratic. Hence, months of positive data surprises are often followed by a months with negative data surprises. Only, when there were severe growth deteriorations as in autumn 2006, summer 2008 and the May – July period of this year will the surprise indicator run negative readings for several months. US growth expectations have been scaled down suggesting that it will not take a lot to exceed low expectations.

ETFs Investment Options include

Rydex CurrencyShares Euro Currency Trust (FXE): The EUR/USD exchange rate is a foreign exchange spot rate that measures the relative values of two currencies, the euro and the U.S. dollar.

FXE Tracks: Euro Index. Expense Ratio: 0.40%

PowerShares DB USD Index (UDN): The Index is a rules-based index composed solely of short USDX futures contracts. The USDX futures contract is designed to replicate the performance of being short the US Dollar against the following currencies: Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Swedish Krona and Swiss Franc.

Expense Ratio: 0.40%

iPath GBP/USD Exchange Rate ETN (GBB): The GBP/USD exchange rate is a foreign exchange spot rate that measures the relative values of two currencies, the British pound and the U.S. dollar.

Expense Ratio: 0.40%

iPath EUR/USD Exchange Rate ETN (ERO): The EUR/USD exchange rate is a foreign exchange spot rate that measures the relative values of two currencies, the euro and the U.S. dollar.

Expense Ratio: 0.40%


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Why the Euro Should Remain Bullish Despite Firming U.S. Dollar

By world market pulse team on October 14,2010

Traders are likely to remain in a Euro Bullish mode despite the firming up of the US dollar Tuesday on what market participants describe as a wariness of any further intervention by the BoJ, and the increasing uncertainty over the size and timing of a much anticipated round of stimulus by the Fed.

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USD Recovery: The US dollar had its worst month since May 2009 against a basket of currencies and the slight USD recovery is very welcome news even amongst the euro bulls, as it basically allows them the opportunity to enter their putative strategies at a more advantageous levels. The movement in the dollar index has a lot of affect on commodities and other currencies, even if it does not replicate the action of the index. But the USD needs some sort of a trigger mechanism to come out of its negative sluggish cycle. Some of the points that can trigger the positive spike in the Dollar index are discussed here.

Fed Public Debate Grows: Meanwhile, the Fed’s members continued a very public debate of the central bank’s policy, with Kansas City President Hoenig stating that QE could do more harm than good while the newly appointed Fed Vice President Yellen voiced her concern about extraordinary low rates, saying they may motivate investors to ‘reach for yield’ by engaging in excessive risk-taking. If the public Fed debates are to be considered as the yardstick for future policies, it's gives the impression that the Fed has many options up its sleeve. But there is a growing market view that the Fed would not utilize any other choice and instead hold the rates near zero to try to implement further accommodative measures simultaneously.

In FX markets, the mere thought that the Fed was considering adding more liquidity via QE was sufficient to weaken the dollar by 5.5% from mid-September to early October against its trade weighted currency basket and by over 9% against the euro.

Euro ETFs To Watch Out For:

Rydex CurrencyShares Euro Currency Trust (FXE): The EUR/USD exchange rate is a foreign exchange spot rate that measures the relative values of two currencies, the euro and the U.S. dollar.

FXE Tracks: Euro Index. Expense Ratio: 0.40%

Short Euro ETFs

ProShares UltraShort Euro (EUO): ProShares UltraShort Euro seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to twice (200%) the inverse (opposite) of the daily performance of the U.S. Dollar price of the Euro.

EUO Tracks: Euro (-200%) Index. Expense Ratio: 0.95%

Market Vectors-Double Short Euro ETN (DRR): As the Index is two-times leveraged, for every 1% weakening of the euro relative to the U.S. dollar, the level of the Index will generally increase by 2%, while for every 1% strengthening of the euro relative to the U.S. dollar, the Index will generally decrease by 2%.

DRR Tracks: Double Short Euro Index. Expense Ratio: 0.65%

Long Euro ETFs

ProShares Ultra Euro (ULE): ProShares Ultra Euro seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to twice (200%) the U.S. Dollar price of the Euro.

ULE Tracks: Euro (200%) Index. Expense Ratio: 0.95%

Market Vectors-Double Long Euro ETN (URR): As the Index is two-times leveraged, for every 1% strengthening of the euro relative to the U.S. dollar, the level of the Index will generally increase by 2%, while for every 1% weakening of the euro relative to the U.S. dollar, the Index will generally decrease by 2%.

URR Tracks: Double Long Euro Index. Expense Ratio: 0.65%

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Can GBP Beat The Double Dip To Stay Positive?

By world market pulse team on October 13,2010

Sterling traders have been worried over the news about falling house prices in the UK with the release of the RICS House price survey for September which indicated that the number of surveyors reporting falling home prices increased relative to those reporting increases. The release not only corroborated the view that the UK housing market continued cooling recently and weighed on sterling sentiment but is also one of main reasons why ‘double-dip’ is starting to reappear in market discussions after the pound lost a little ground yesterday.


Inflation Report Supporting GBP: Despite data pointing to weakening demand and a cooling housing market, the CPI data release out of the UK corroborates the view that QE2 is still only a distant prospect. The CPI release indicates that inflation remains well above inflation targets with headline CPI at 3.1%, core CPI at 2.7% and RPI at 4.6% (all year over year figures). The CPI figures were almost exactly in line with expectations although the RPI came in slightly higher than the expected 4.4%. Positive inflation surprises last month triggered a temporary correction higher in market inflation expectations as proxied by the implied rate of the UK 5y Inflation swap.

Analysts at World Market Pulse expect that the inflation support is likely to continue adding to the GBP strength in the short term despite the release of the RICS House price survey; while analysts at the Deutsche Bank believe the door to further near-term gains to 1.6090/110 remains open as long as support at 1.5800 is unbroken. Indeed, an early dip to 1.5860 would create the necessary risk-reward conditions for a new bullish

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Britain Economic Overview: The Bank of England has reported a decline in services output in both June and July. Consumer confidence deteriorated more than expected last month. Industrial output is off 11% from pre-recession levels and has been flat since February. Retail sales seem to be holding up pretty well but consumer credit was up a meager 0.2% y/y. Business lending has fallen for five consecutive months. The government feels the Bank of England can come to the rescue if the economy does show serious signs of faltering as cuts and tax hikes hit home. Maybe yes maybe no; the BoE interest rates remain at record lows but QE remains an option. However, with the planned deficit reduction it seems unlikely that economic growth can do anything other than head south over 2011.

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Tracing Job Data's Impact On Dollar Index And Forex Trends

By world market pulse team on October 09,2010

As if the business services firm ADP's latest installment of its National Employment Report, indicating that the situation for private employment in the U.S. took a turn for the worse in September was not bad enough, the dollar fell across the board as investors dumped the dollar for higher yielding and more lucrative currencies.

The ADP reported a loss of 39,000 jobs in the private sector against expectations of new job creation of 50,000. Although most optimists were surprised by the results, ADP said there was no clear momentum in employment as of now. Although its hard to please everyone, most analysts agree that ADP numbers are one of the best single predictors of the official payrolls number, even if there have been a handful of bad misses.

Most analysts believe that it would take a payrolls reading bigger than +150k to get the market to think the Fed would reconsider QE2 and even with neutral numbers, it is likely the market will hold and the USD is most likely to continue breaking through to new levels of weakness like 1.40 or higher in EURUSD. With a negative ADP outlook, the dollar index fell to its lowest levels since January at 77.619 from 77.811 while the euro hit a fresh 8-month high at 1.3918. Despite concerns over the Eurozone sovereign debt re- igniting, most analysts believe that the dollar might just continue its ongoing fall against the Euro.

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US Policy And The Weakening USD:

Given the recent USD weakening and unilateral actions on exchange rates, discussions between the G20 Deputy Finance Ministers and G7 Finance Ministers/Central Bank Governors are likely to feature currency games much more prominently than in the past couple of years. There is a deep concern that the US is likely to receive a strong degree of criticism for effectively ‘debasing’ the dollar via extremely accommodative monetary policy. Experts also feel that despite the criticism, the US government or Fed will not change course and if comments on the sidelines of the meetings foster expectation for action, eventual disappointment should only reinforce downward pressure upon USD.


Forex Trends Update: Goldman Sachs Global Economic report has meanwhile revised the majority of its FX forecasts to reflect broad dollar depreciation and it revised its euro forecasts to hit a whopping $1.55 in the next 12-months. Meanwhile, the pound hit a new 2-month high at 1.5938, while the CAD breached a new 5-month high at 1.0083, as it nears dollar parity. The riskier currencies also took advantage over its higher yields over the plummeting buck as the Australian Dollar hit a fresh 2-year high at 0.9781 while the New Zealand Dollar also hit a new 1-year high at 0.7537.

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Is Global Currency War A Clear Advantage To The Chinese Yuan?

By world market pulse team on October 09,2010

As the global economies, business and market trends change momentum towards the east, the relationship between a country's economy and its currency is getting much more complicated as governments across the globe are assuming a bigger role in propping up the financial system and encouraging economic growth. What started as a small echo with allegations on China to knowingly undervalue its currency has now grown into a currency war after the Japanese government's intervention in the currency markets by weakening the Yen for the first time in six years while the counter strike from the Dollar came when the FED announced the readiness to introduce a new round of quantitative easing to boost the economy. Such has been the impact of the recent currency games that IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has now joined those warning that governments are risking a currency war if they try to manipulate exchange rates to solve domestic problems.

Experts meanwhile feel that if the currency games continue for a long term, investor confidence in international currencies could break down to such an extent that it could lead to sharp changes in the near future. A few forex experts and analysts have expressed concern that Chinese Yuan could very well emerge as the next preferred currency of global trade as and when the dust settles down from the current tit for tat mechanism. If investor confidence is shaken up badly by the prolonged currency tug of war, the absence of any other credible alternative to the US dollar as the reserve currency of choice might just work in favor of the Chinese Yuan.

According to Joseph Yam, a former chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the yuan should become fully convertible, the domestic debt market in China should acquire depth, and a robust financial infrastructure should be put in place if the Chinese Yuan has to emerge as the preferred choice of the investors in the near future.

China and Hong Kong had earlier agreed to loosen rules regulating trading of the yuan in the territory in July, tweaking rules to allow the sale of yuan-denominated financial products and giving companies greater access to yuan funds. Much of the trade settlement business came from companies looking to re-denominate to yuan away from the US dollar, which most companies operating in China use to pay and issue invoices.


Although skeptics have questioned an such possibility because China as of now runs a balance-of-payment surplus by keeping its currency artificially pegged might find it extremely difficult to take the yuan global without changing its export focus but Guonan Ma, senior economist at the Bank for International Settlements believes that it isn’t entirely necessary for the yuan to become fully convertible for it to be gradually internationalized. There is another argument saying that if China can work its way around the problem by building good institutions, established rule of law, property rights, good corporate governance with long-term bond markets and stringent regulations

Meanwhile China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, has already been trying to do by establishing currency swap agreements with central banks around the world.

The depreciation of the Yuan compared to the Dollar has already caused a growing tension between The U.S and China in recent weeks. The U.S is blaming the cheap Yuan for its economic issues and even financial sanctions against China have been on the cards. If these two giant economies are starting to threaten each other, the impact on the ever-slowing recovery could be enormous.

Reality Of The Chinese Currency Drama: China, from its earliest civilizations has always been a clever economy and it's certain that it would not enter into an economic suicide by blindly imitating the west. It is also quite clear that the Chinese government would not allow their currency to go down with the dollar ship as most of the export dependent companies of China which form big chunk of current Chinese economy may lose steam as most of them work on very thin margins. Although economists continue to be skeptical about the goodness of the Chinese currency moves, there is no doubt that China is ready to resume greater flexibility with its yuan.

Political Complications: Although financial analysts are divided over the issue, most political observers have been quite unanimous in saying that whether the yuan becomes more international if at all, politicians and Chinese policymakers are likely to loose their degree of freedom, as there would be deep international repercussions of their policy measures.

Whatever might be the case, most economists are of the view that the rise of the Yuan or renminbi is desperately needed as a multipolar system actually helps in stabilizing the international monetary system.

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