US Dollar retreats across the board with markets nervous about US data

NEW YORK (August 8) The US Dollar (USD) eases across the board against nearly all major peers in what turns out to be a nervous Thursday. Markets are trembling in the run-up to the weekly US Jobless Claims data, which will be released later in the day. It was this same data point that sparked the volatile patch last week ahead of the US Jobs reports and resulted in the massive sell-off on Monday across all asset classes. 

On the economic data front, there is a very light calendar ahead. Because of this very calm trading week in terms of economic data, the weekly Initial Jobless Claims print for the week ending on August 2 will gain importance in magnitude. Thus, expect a rough ride later this Thursday on the back of the Jobless Claims data. 

Daily digest market movers: Volatility to pick up again

• The economic calendar kicks off at 12:30 GMT with, straight away, the main event being presented: The weekly Jobless Claims
  • Initial Claims for the week ending August 2 are expected to head to 240,000 from 249,000.
  • Continuing Claims were at 1,877,000. No forecast for the week ending July 26 is pencilled in. 
• At 14:00 GMT, Wholesale Inventories data for June is expected to grow by 0.2%, at the same pace as the previous month. 
• At 17:00 GMT, the US Treasury will auction a 30-year bond. 
• Equity markets are losing steam, with nearly all European incidences in the red. US futures are down as well, though slightly. 
• The CME Fedwatch Tool shows a 72.5% chance of a 50 basis points (bps) interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve (Fed) in September.  Another 25 bps cut is expected in November by 55.6%, while a 27.2% chance for a 50 bps cut and 17.2% for no cut are being pencilled in for that meeting. 
• The US 10-year benchmark rate trades at 3.91%, retreating from this week’s high at 3.98%.

FXStreet