As the week comes to a close, the Canadian dollar ends the day as the strongest among the major currencies. The Swiss franc is the weakest. The US dollar was mostly lower with modest gains against the Japanese yen and Swiss franc. The Canadian dollar rose despite lower-than-expected retail sales in March. However, estimates for April were strong at 0.7% offsetting the -0.2% decline this month.
The US dollar fell supported by consumer confidence in Michigan. Not only have confidence, expectations and the current situation risen, but inflation expectations have fallen (click here for the full report). A CNBC analyst today warned about the reliability of the data due to political bias. GOP participants tend to have an overly negative view of the economy and inflation versus their Democratic counterparts. Recall at the beginning that confidence fell sharply while inflation rose. Today's data saw these trends reflect some big changes from the initial numbers. what do you think?.
Also in the US today, US Durable Goods Orders came in stronger than expected at 0.7% vs. -0.8%. However, these data are open to severe revisions. Factory orders that will be released in approximately 10 days will show durable goods reviews. In the past month, revisions have been very significant (from the originally announced 2.6% to the final 0.8%).
During the trading week, the US dollar rose against the major currencies. Below is a review of the weekly change of major currencies against the US dollar:
- Euro: +0.17%
- Japanese Yen, +0.82%
- British Pound: -0.30%
- Swiss Franc: +0.72%
- Canadian: +0.3%
- Australian Dollar: +0.93%
- The New Zealand dollar is unchanged
In today's US dollar market, returns ended the day with mixed results:
- The two-year yield is 4.940%, +1.5 basis points
- 5-year yield 4.527% +0.2 vault
- 10-year yield 4.466%, -0.8 basis points
- The 30-year yield is 4.572%, -0.7 basis points
For the trading week, yields are higher with sugar and moving up is the yield curve becoming flatter:
- Two-year yield +11.9 basis points
- 5-year yield, +8.1 basis points
- 10-year yield +4.5 basis points
- 30-year yield +1.1 basis points
The spread between 2 and 10 years is -47.9 basis points, which is more negative by -0.7.4 basis points.
The 2-30 year profit margin is -37.7 bps and is more negative by -10.8 bps.
In other markets:
- Crude oil is trading at $77.70, up $0.83 or 1.05%. During the trading week, the price of crude oil decreased by -$1.76 or -2.22%
- Gold fell by -$79.97 or -3.31%
- Bitcoin rose to $2,683
- Ethereum price rose by $648 to $3,738. This represents a gain of approximately 21% on expectations of approval of the ETF.
Monday is a holiday in the United Kingdom and the United States. I hope everyone has a great weekend.