U.S. Durable Goods Orders for March were +2.6%, above the 2.5% estimate. And Durable Goods excluding transportation were +0.2%, matching the survey estimate. Today’s better-than-expected data offsets yesterday’s drop in manufacturing and services inflation, giving a lift to the dollar and treasury yields.
The U.S. dollar index is +0.10%, primarily due to a 0.50% gain vs. SEK, 0.30% gain vs. CAD, and sub-0.10% gains against JPY, CHF & EUR. At 105.788, the dollar index is on the low side of its 105.75/106.50 2-week range.
U.S. Treasuries are higher in all tenors, the widest gains concentrated in the far tenors, and the 10-year yield leading +0.039% at 4.643%.
USD/JPY reached a fresh multi-year high today at 155.17 as dollar bulls continue to pile into the short JPY position despite a steady stream of intervention warnings from Japanese finance officials. The Japanese yen has now weakened 50.10% since year-end 2020 and is down 9.85% just this year against the dollar.
Oil prices are -0.72% today, in-line with the entire energy sector. Natural gas prices are leading declines, down 3.75%.
Gold is -0.04% today vs. yesterday’s close, currently $2,321.20/oz. Gold is now 4.53% below its all-time record high set on April 12th.
