Dollar bulls kept charging until the end of the week, spurred by the Fed’s recent announcement regarding its plan to reduce bond purchases by the end of the year. 

There are no reports due from the United States today, which either suggests quiet trading for most major currency pairs or the possibility of surprise movement from any market event.

EUR

The euro continued to lose ground to the dollar at the end of the week, but managed to post some gains against the Japanese yen. Only the German Ifo business climate report is set for release from the euro zone today and an improvement from 105.7 to 106.00 is expected for June. A higher than expected reading could allow EUR/USD to climb back above the 1.3100 or even 1.3200 area while a poor figure could set off a break below 1.3000.

GBP

The pound sold off heavily against the dollar on Friday but gained against the Japanese yen. There were no major releases from the UK then, although the government did report a smaller than expected public sector net borrowing figure, suggesting that UK finances are improving. There are no releases from the UK today.

CHF

The Swiss franc seems ready to post more losses against the US dollar in the coming trading days as an inverse head and shoulders pattern formed on its 1-hour and 4-hour time frames. There are no reports due from Switzerland today, which suggests that there’s no market catalyst to trigger a break just yet.

JPY

The yen lost ground to its counterparts on Friday after BOJ Governor Kuroda pointed to the prevailing weaknesses in the Japanese economy and how their easing program is helping to address those. This allowed traders to renew confidence in the BOJ’s stimulus program, thinking that further easing could be necessary if the Japanese economy continues to underperform. There are no reports due from Japan today.

Commodity Currencies (AUD, CAD, NZD)

Commodity currencies sank to new lows against the US dollar on Friday, with AUD/USD slipping below 0.9200 and USD/CAD breaking above 1.0400. Canadian retail sales came in weaker than expected, as the headline figure showed a mere 0.1% uptick while the core figure printed a 0.3% decline. Canadian CPI also disappointed with a 0.2% headline figure and 0.2% core figure. No reports are due from the comdoll economies today.

By Kate Curtis from Trader’s Way