By Russell Glaser
09:30 GMT GBP Claimant Count Change
– Change in the number of people claiming unemployment. This figure relates to November that ended recently – what makes this figure fresh and important.
– Last month’s number of people asking for unemployment benefits rose by 12.9K, much less than previous months and early expectations. This improvement is now expected to be slightly erased, with a rise of 13.9K jobs this time
– The GBP already lost over 200 pips this week, suffering from a strong U.S dollar.
If the actual result will come in line or higher than expected that might weight further on the British pound.
13:30 GMT USD Building Permits
– Annualized number of new residential building permits issued during the previous month. It’s an excellent gauge of future construction activity because obtaining a permit is among the first steps in constructing a new building.
– With a great deal of speculation that the housing market has bottomed, it will be very important to see this trend continue in the right direction. While new homes make up a much smaller percentage of the overall real estate market when compared to existing homes, it is still a very important indicator in the fact new homes require construction crews, inspectors, subcontractors and so the long term affect can be great.
– After a dip in the October data to 550K housing starts on an annualized basis, analysts are expecting this number to jump back up to 580K in November. With higher than expected number we could once again see a U.S. equity and U.S. dollar rally at the same time which has been a very abnormal occurrence over the last year as these two have typically had an inverse relationship.
19:15 GMT USD Federal Funds Rate
– Traders and investors pay close attention to any decisions made by the FOMC as these decisions can directly affect short and long-term interest rates, foreign exchange rates and the amount of money and credit in the economy.
– With such a broad impact on the overall economy, any decisions or statements indicating the health of the economy are closely watched and can have both an immediate and long-term impact.
– The market impact of this release can be both dramatic and immediate but also sustainable. The FOMC is scheduled to meet eight times per year with the goal of providing monetary and economic stability. It is not out of the realm of possibility that the FOMC could shock the market by pushing rates up to 0.50%. While this is very unlikely, if that is what happens, the U.S. dollar would most likely appreciate rapidly vs. majors.
We could see a continuation of the dollar’s strengthening today with the EUR/USD falling. Major support lines for the EUR/USD are 1.4500, 1.4445, and 1.4395.
Forex Market Analysis provided by Forex Yard.
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