Forex Major Currencies Outlook (October 21, 2013)

Risk appetite was still strong that day, after the US government ended its shutdown and avoided a default earlier in the week. As for data, there weren’t any released from the US economy last Friday. US existing home sales and crude oil inventories are up for release today. Existing home sales could dip from 5.41M to 5.38M while crude oil inventories are projected to fall from 6.8M to 3.4M. 

EUR

The euro extended its gains against the US dollar on Friday as risk appetite remained in the markets until the end of the trading week. There were no reports released from the euro zone on Friday, as EUR/USD’s action was mostly a result of market sentiment. For today, German PPI is up for release and a 0.1% uptick in producer prices is expected. 

GBP

The pound was able to reach the 1.6200 handle against the dollar on Friday as traders continued to take on more risk in their portfolios. There were no reports released from the UK then while earlier today, the Rightmove HPI printed better than expected data as the report showed a 2.8% jump in house prices. No other reports are due from the UK for the rest of the day. 

CHF
The franc continued its winning ways on Friday as the USD/CHF pair came close to testing the .9000 major psychological level. There were no reports released from Switzerland as the move was mostly a result of an improvement in risk sentiment. For today, Switzerland’s economic schedule is still empty so USD/CHF might stay sensitive to sentiment for the rest of the day. 

JPY

Yen pairs either edged higher or stayed range-bound on Friday, supported by the run in risk appetite. There were no reports released from Japan but the recent improvements in Chinese data were enough to spark confidence during the Asian trading session. Japan just printed a 1.09 trillion JPY trade deficit, slightly larger than the estimated 1.06 trillion JPY deficit, and is set to report its all industries activity index within the day. 

Commodity Currencies (AUD, NZD, CAD)

The comdolls were able to take advantage of risk appetite on Friday after China printed improvements in its economic data. GDP climbed from 7.5% to 7.8% for the third quarter of the year while industrial production came in line with consensus at 10.2%. Retail sales was slightly weaker than expected. Canada’s CPI was mostly in line with consensus as the core figure printed a 0.2% uptick and so did the headline figure. Canadian wholesale sales is up for release today and a 0.6% uptick is eyed. 

By Kate Curtis from Trader's Way