London Session Recap

Daily Forex Fundamentals | Written by Forex.com | Aug 18 08 11:42 GMT |


The greenback recovered somewhat in the London session, after being sold for the better part of the Asia session. The Euro-zone trade balance came in at a weaker than expected -3.0B in June after a -1.0B print the prior month. The market was looking for a small increase and thus the surprise was palpable. This helped EURUSD lower, from an open near 1.4745 to a close near the 1.4705 mark.

Oil prices were a touch lower in the session, sitting near $114.25/bbl after opening around the $114.85/bbl area. This boosted USDCAD from an open near 1.0575 towards 1.0610 at the close. With the Russia/Georgia situation seemingly under control now, we would look for oil to come off some more and continue to give USDCAD a nudge higher.

USDJPY traded sideways the entire session, opening and closing near the 110.25 level. US stock futures are pointing to a modestly positive open, but the small decline in bond yields is providing a counterbalance here in terms of dictating the direction of USDJPY.

The only piece of US economic data out this morning is the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) index. The market expects the index to remain at an all-time low of 16 as inventories remains high while sales continue to bounce along the bottom. The risk is that we get a substantial bounce towards the 20 area, which would signal to the market that the bottom in housing is near. This sort of result should see USDEUR back towards the day's lows near 1.4650/45.

Upcoming Economic Data Releases (NY Session) Prior Estimate

* 8/18/2008 12:30 GMT CA Int'l Securities Transactions JUN C$10.717 C$5.500
* 8/18/2008 17:00 GMT US NAHB Housing Market Index AUG 16 16

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