{"id":8109,"date":"2010-03-31T07:38:40","date_gmt":"2010-03-31T11:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/fx\/?p=8109"},"modified":"2010-03-31T07:38:40","modified_gmt":"2010-03-31T11:38:40","slug":"euro-trading-lower-on-financial-system-worries-positive-u-s-consumer-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/2010\/03\/31\/euro-trading-lower-on-financial-system-worries-positive-u-s-consumer-confidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Euro Trading Lower on Financial System Worries, Positive U.S. Consumer Confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.forexyard.com\/?zone_id=1398\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Forex     Yard<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Dollar rose versus the EUR, but was mixed in the other major crosses  after renewed concerns over the European banking system weighed on the  EUR and other riskier, higher yielding currencies.<\/p>\n<h3>Economic News<\/h3>\n<h3>USD &#8211; Higher U.S. Consumer Confidence Boosts the Dollar<\/h3>\n<p>The greenback rose versus the EUR but was mixed against the majors  during the New York trading session, reclaiming most of the ground it  lost to the EUR after the release of the Greek bailout package.  Triggering the rising Dollar was a warning by Standard &amp; Poor&#8217;s that  the weak Greek banking system has been damaged by the fiscal crisis the  country is experiencing.<\/p>\n<p>The EUR\/USD is currently trading lower  at 1.3400 after opening the day at 1.3487, while the GBP\/USD was higher  at 1.5070, following an opening day price of 1.4997. The USD\/JPY was at  93.25 from 92.17.<\/p>\n<p>The Dollar was also supported by better than  expected consumer confidence numbers. U.S. CB Consumer Confidence was  released with an output of 52.5, far above economists&#8217; expectations of  50.1. This leads economists and traders to believe that the U.S. economy  may begin to pick up steam in the near term, recovering faster than its  European counterpart.<\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s trading should be largely driven  by economic data set to be released. The highlight will be the release  of the ADP Non-Farm Employment Change. The report is set to be released  at 13:15 GMT with expectations of an additional 40K jobs to the U.S.  economy. A release on par with market expectations or one that exceeds  the forecast could push the EUR\/USD lower to its previous low at 1.3266.<\/p>\n<h3>EUR &#8211; Banking Fears Weigh on the Euro<\/h3>\n<p>The EUR slumped following a brief recovery in the 16-nation currency.  Weakening the EUR was not only the warning from S&amp;P concerning the  health of the Greek banking system, but also a decision by Ireland to  inject billions of euros into the ailing Irish banking system and a  reduced growth forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for  Germany.<\/p>\n<p>The plan to aid the struggling Irish banking system,  dubbed by the Irish press as Bailout Tuesday, the Irish government would  seize two banking institutions, inject funds into struggling banks and  take control of troubled assets at other lenders. Irish finance experts  have called this the nationalization of the Irish banking system. In  total, 8B euros will be used to support Irish banks. This does not  include another 2.7B euro private investment that will be needed to  bring Irish banks up to their needed capitalization standards.<\/p>\n<p>Adding  to Europe&#8217;s woes was a reduced forecast for German economic growth by  the IMF. The forecast was dropped to 1.2% from 1.5%.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly  enough, it appears the U.S. is putting more distance between itself and  Europe as the major U.S. banking institutions are recovering and  returning to profitability while European financial institutions  continue to require fresh government aid. This may be reflected in the  recent loss of value in the EUR.<\/p>\n<h3>JPY &#8211; Australian Retail Sales Disappoint, dropping the AUD\/USD<\/h3>\n<p>The Australian Dollar weakened in the early morning hours of the  trading day after the release of Australian economic data failed to meet  market expectations. Retail sales for the month of February  disappointed traders with numbers coming in at -1.4% on expectations of a  rise of 0.3%. This sent the AUD\/USD to a low of 0.9144 from an opening  day price of 0.9187.<\/p>\n<p>The unexpected drop in retail sales may be a  signal that the recent interest rate increases by the Reserve Bank of  Australia are beginning to cool the Australian economy. The overnight  cash rate was increased by 25 basis points to 4% this past month.<\/p>\n<p>Consumer  spending makes up roughly one half of the Australian economy.  Therefore, the sudden plunge in retail sales may be enough to convince  the Reserve Bank of Australia to keep interest rates at their current  level when the policy board meets next week. This should have a  weakening affect on the Australian Dollar. The next major support level  for the AUD\/USD rests at 0.9000.<\/p>\n<h3>Crude Oil &#8211; Spot Crude Oil Trading Rises<\/h3>\n<p>Spot Crude Oil traded higher for the second consecutive day after  better than expected consumer confidence numbers, though the gains in  spot Crude Oil prices were held in check by a stronger Dollar. The  rising prices are prior to the release of the weekly Crude Oil inventory  reports.<\/p>\n<p>Spot Crud Oil prices finished the day higher at $82.36  following an opening day price of 82.18. This follows the 3% price rise  during Monday&#8217;s trading.<\/p>\n<p>Traders were being cautious after  Monday&#8217;s $1.70 jump in the price of spot Crude Oil, wondering if the  price move was based only on technical movements or a shift in the  fundamentals of the commodity. The price broke a short term resistance  line of $81.50, though the $83 price level still holds for the long term  resistance.<\/p>\n<p>Today the market will be expecting the weekly Crude  Oil inventories report from the U.S. Energy Information Agency and  could either extend the gains in the commodity or drop the price towards  its lower support levels. Economists are expecting Crude Oil  inventories to rise 2.4M barrels following last week&#8217;s 7.3M barrel  increase. An output below the 2.4M estimate could be a positive for spot  Crude Oil prices and may help extend the bullish rally to the $83  resistance level by the end of the trading day.<\/p>\n<h3>Technical News<\/h3>\n<h3>EUR\/USD<\/h3>\n<p>The 2 hour and daily RSI are floating near the oversold territory  indicating an impending upward movement. A bullish cross is evident on  the 4 hour chart&#8217;s Slow Stochastic. Going long for the day may be  advised.<\/p>\n<h3>GBP\/USD<\/h3>\n<p>The 2 hour and 4 hour RSI is floating in the overbought territory  indicating an imminent downward movement. Furthermore, a bearish cross  is evident on the 8 hour chart. Going short for the day may be a good  option.<\/p>\n<h3>USD\/JPY<\/h3>\n<p>The 2 hour, 4 hour and daily RSI are floating in the overbought  territory, while a bearish cross is evident on the hourly, 4 hour and  daily charts&#8217; Slow Stochastic. Furthermore a breach of the upper  Bollinger Band is evident on the 2 hour, 4 hour and daily charts. Going  short for the day may be advised.<\/p>\n<h3>USD\/CHF<\/h3>\n<p>The pair&#8217;s indicators seem to be floating in neutral territory with  the pair range trading between 1.0650 and 1.0690, however, a bearish  cross is evident on the 4 hour chart&#8217;s Slow Stochastic and the 2 hour  chart&#8217;s RSI is floating near the overbought territory. Going short with  tight stops may be advised for today.<\/p>\n<h3>The Wild Card<\/h3>\n<h3>AUD\/JPY<\/h3>\n<p>A breach of the upper Bollinger Band is evident on the daily chart  with the 2 hour, 4 hour, 8 hour and daily RSI are floating in the  overbought territory. A bearish cross is evident on the 8 hour and daily  charts&#8217; Slow Stochastic. Forex traders may be advised to go short for  today.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Forex Market Analysis<\/strong><\/em> provided by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.forexyard.com\/?zone_id=1398\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Forex        Yard.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 2006 by FxYard Ltd<\/p>\n<p>Disclaimer: Trading Foreign Exchange carries a high level of risk and        may not be suitable for all investors. There is a possibility  that     you   could sustain a loss of all of your investment and  therefore  you     should  not invest money that you cannot afford to  lose. You  should  be    aware of  all the risks associated with Foreign  Exchange  trading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By ForexYard &#8211; The Dollar rose versus the EUR, but was mixed in the other major crosses after renewed concerns over the European banking system weighed on the EUR and other riskier, higher yielding currencies&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}