US DOLLAR FALLS AS TRADERS AWAIT JEROME POWELL TESTIMONY

The New Zealand dollar rose against the US dollar after New Zealand’s statistics office released official CPI numbers for the second quarter. In the quarter, the CPI rose by 0.4%, which was lower than the expected 0.5%. On an annualized basis, the CPI rose by 1.5%, which was lower than the expected 1.6% but higher than Q1’s 1.1%. After the data was released, the NZD/USD pair rose from 0.6755 to an intraday high of 0.6840.

The GBP/USD pair fell today after the UK released worse-than-expected jobs numbers. The data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed that the average earnings index plus bonuses grew by 2.5%, which was lower than the expected 2.6%. The claimant counts rose to 7.8K, which was higher than the expected 2.3K while the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.2%. The pound has become vulnerable as Prime Minister Theresa May faces the biggest challenge of her political career. She faces a divided parliament as she presents her Brexit proposals.

The Australian dollar rose and fell against the US dollar after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) released minutes for the meeting held earlier this month. In the minutes, officials sounded cautiously optimistic with the main factors of concerns being global trade, falling housing prices in Sydney and Melbourne, and low consumer spending. They were also concerned about slowing wage growth.

The US dollar fell today against the major currency peers as traders waited for the testimony from the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell. Today, the chair will testify before the Senate committee. He will continue tomorrow to testify before Congress. Traders will listen to his comments about the economy, the pace of interest rate hikes, and the impacts of the trade war. Meanwhile, the earning season continued in top gear with Goldman Sachs’ earnings growing by more than 40%. The bank also announced that David Solomon will replace Lloyd Blankfein as the next CEO.

EUR/USD

After rising initially, the EUR/USD pair fell and is currently trading at 1.1700. As the pair rose, it crossed the important resistance price shown below. It has now moved below this resistance level and is trading in line with the 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) and is on the 50% Fibonacci Retracement level. The pair could continue moving lower 1.1680 level.

NZD/USD

The NZD/USD pair rose today to reach an intraday high of 0.6840 after the CPI numbers from New Zealand. The pair has moved lower and is currently trading at 0.6800, which is slightly below the 23.6% Fibonacci Retracement level. The pair could continue to move lower to test the 0.679 level which is an important support and also the 50% Fibonacci Retracement level.

GBP/USD

In the past one week, the GBP/USD pair has been trading in a sideways direction. Today, the pair fell after the UK released June’s jobs numbers. The pair is now trading at 1.3190, which is the lowest level since Friday last month. The current price is on the lower band of the Bollinger Bands and between the 50% and 38.6% Fibonacci Retracement level. There is a likelihood that the pair could continue to trade below the 1.3175 level.