The dollars’ performance overnight is an even mix of small gains and losses vs. the G10, book-ended by a 0.41% gain vs. NZD and -0.35% vs. EUR. Widening the view to include performance against all the majors, the dollar’s gains are concentrated in the emerging market pairs: +0.57% vs. KRW, +0.42% vs. ZAR, +0.22% vs. MXN, +0.11% vs. TWD, and +0.03% vs. BRL. The dollar’s widest gain for the week (among majors) is vs. Mexico’s peso, +1.08%.
The dollar index is -0.22% at 106.331, mid-way between the recent low of 105.535 (Oct 12th) and 107.348 high (Oct 3rd).
Jobless Claims for the week ending Oct 14th were 198k, below the 210k estimate and the lowest reading since the week of January 27th. A stubbornly strong labor market, combined with resilient consumer spending (Retail Sales data reported earlier this week was more than double Wall Street’s survey estimate) keeps the pressure on the Fed to continue raising rates.
The expectation of higher borrowing rates is pressuring treasury prices, lifting yields to multi-decade highs. The benchmark 10-year yield is 4.937%, on the threshold of resistance at 5% last traded in June of 2007. All tenors are trading at multi-year highs, and the curve remains inverted (where yields on short-term tenors are higher than the longer-term tenors).
European equities are lower for the day with the FTSE 100 taking the brunt of the selling, -1.011%. U.S. equity indexes are set to open higher, Nasdaq futures leading the way +0.488%.
Oil prices are -1.06% at $87.38/barrel but remain within October’s high/low range. Gold continues to be bid, +0.23% today and is +7.25% from October 5th close at $1,820.01.
Fed Chairman Powell speaks today at noon EST at the Economic Club of New York.
