Forex Daily Recap – US Dollar Index And Safe-Haven USD/JPY Extended Second-Day Plunge Rally

EUR/USD

The Euro pair started off the day near 1.1256 level. The pair suffered had a small correction in the Asian session, managed to uplift creating fresh highs for the day. After reaching the day’s upper vicinity EUR/USD acted range bound for quite some time between 1.1272 and 1.1282 levels. From the release front, Italy February MoM Retail Sales figures were in-line with the market expectation of 0.1 percent. The Retail Sales YoY numbers showed some splendid results with actual numbers as 0.9 percent in comparison to the consensus estimate of 0.1 percent.

In the meanwhile, reports suggested that US administration threatens the European Union of imposing tariff duties on $11 billion of EU goods which comes under the US Section 301 provisions. The US had initiated this step after the United States Trade Representative (USTR) addressed that the World Trade Organization (WTO) recently stated in one of its reports that EU subsidies to Airbus have a significant impact on the US. Adding to the same statement, USTR hinted of commencement of imposing tariffs on EU goods on Monday.

However, the point of surprise was that the EUR/USD soared during the day despite such a dreadful event.

The US Dollar Index

The USD Index that computes the greenback against the six major currencies opened up on Tuesday morning near 97.06 level. The greenback extended the Monday’s downward rally today touching the lowest vicinity of 96.86 level. The US Dollar Index was anyways heading lower as the counter currencies that weigh against it uplifted. Among them, Australian Dollars (AUD) and Canadian Dollars (CAD) went up on the back of rising crude price upsurge. It was a silent day on the event calendar with investors waiting for tomorrow’s ECB meeting, EU summit, US CPI prices and the announcement of March Fed meeting minutes.

USD/CAD

The loonie pair which faced a continuous slump in value amid rising crude prices saw south finally. Crude prices had reached the five-month high level in the last few days on the back of OPEC-led supply cuts and global geopolitical tensions. During today’s North American trading session, the Crude Oil West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Futures dropped from $64.78 per barrel reaching $63.70 per barrel. This pullback in the crude prices helped the USD/CAD to achieve a fresh session high of 1.3330 level. The crude prices went down after Russian President Vladimir Putin showed disagreement against the violently skyrocketing oil prices. Prez mentioned that Russia would resume Oil production and supply operations from June. Russia was among the OPEC members who had cut oil supply to elevate prices.

USD/JPY

The safe-haven pair touched new lows around 110.99 level for the week. The USD/JPY pair opened up on Tuesday morning near 111.54 level which went on plunging until 111.29 level. The pair maintained range bound movement during the European trading session. In the evening session, the pair completely lost hold of itself and reached the lowest vicinity near 111 levels. The pair had extended the plunge for the second trading session in this week. US President Trump’s threat was providing a caveat for an EU-US Trade war and Brexit uncertainties added to the pain in the pair.