Marketwatch North America

Daily Insights
March 4, 2024

The economic calendar has a full schedule this week, with the primary focus on Fed Chairman Powell’s semiannual testimony to a House panel on Wednesday and Senate panel on Thursday. Another key focus will be on Friday’s U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls for February, forecast +200k.

Traders have started to hedge with the expectation that Chairman Powell will double down on the Fed’s ‘wait and see’ approach to any rate cuts. A recent string of data has confirmed that inflation remains stubbornly high (and rising in some areas), what ordinary shoppers already knew. U.S. Treasury yields are higher today with the biggest gains in the 2yr- 5yr tenors (+0.06%). Benchmark 10yr yield is +0.041% at 4.224%.

The dollar index is -0.07%, trading near the 200-day moving average at 104.09. The 100-day moving average is close by at 104.55. The close and narrowing proximity of the two averages to each other underscores the historically low volatility in the foreign exchange market.

Today’s dollar losses vs. the G10: -0.33% vs. GBP and -0.22% vs. EUR. Dollar gains include +0.24% vs. NOK & JPY, +0.19% vs. CHF, +0.17% vs. AUD, +0.15% vs. NZD, and +0.06% vs. CAD.

Economic Calendar

:
EUR - French Gov Budget Balance
:
AUD - MI Inflation Gauge m/m
:
EUR - Spanish Unemployment Change
:
EUR - Sentix Investor Confidence
:
JPY - Tokyo Core CPI y/y
:
AUD - ANZ Job Advertisements m/m
:
AUD - Building Approvals m/m
:
AUD - Company Operating Profits q/q
:
CHF - CPI m/m

Market Indicators

Currency Pairs
Pair High Low
usd/jpy 150.57 149.839
eur/usd 1.08618 1.0834
gbp/usd 1.26929 1.26467
aud/usd 0.65352 0.6509
usd/cad 1.35837 1.3545
eur/gbp 0.85664 0.85512
usd/mxn 17.023 16.9954
Equities and Commodities
S&P 500 5132.88
NASDAQ 18276.4
DOW 38977.3
GOLD 2100.05
SILVER 23.46

This document is for information purposes only and does not constitute any recommendation or solicitation to any person to enter into any transaction or adopt any trading strategy, nor does it constitute any prediction of likely future movements in exchange rates or prices or any representation that any such future movements will not exceed those shown on any illustration. All exchange rates and figures appearing are for illustrative purposes only. You are advised to make your own independent judgment with respect to any matter contained herein.