The week ahead
Check out the full article to be updated on last week's economic data, and what to look out for this week on some major forex currencies!
USD
There were no high impact economic events taking place last week that strongly affected the USD. However, there was still some positive data coming from the US. The Initial Jobless Claims data was much better than the 617K consensus, coming in with an actual of 547K. New Home Sales (MoM) data increased to 1.021M compared to the 0.886M that was forecasted. Some more positive economic data included the Markit Manufacturing PMI and the Markit Services PMI.
In the coming week there are a few high economic events for the US. These include the Durable Goods Orders (Mar) and the Nondefense Capital Goods Orders ex Aircraft (Mar) on Monday (26/04), Fed Interest Rate Decision, Fed’s Monetary Policy Statement and FOMC Conference on Wednesday (28/04) and the Gross Domestic Product Annualized (Q1) data on Thursday (29/04).
Our outlook for the USD is bearish this week.
EUR
Economic data for the EUR was mostly positive within the last week. As expected the ECB left the Interest Rate and Deposit Rate unchanged. Germany’s Markit Manufacturing PMI was positive, with an actual of 66.4 vs the 65.8 consensus. However, the Markit PMI Composite didn't have the same positive result, coming in below the 56.8 consensus to 56 actual. Euro’s Markit PMI Composite was slightly more positive as it came in above the 52.8 consensus with an actual of 53.7.
In the coming week, keep a lookout for ECB’s President Lagarde’s Speech on Wednesday (28/04), Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (YoY) on Thursday (29/04) and the GDP (QoQ), Consumer Price Index and Gross Domestic Product s.a. Data on Friday (30/04).
Our outlook for the EUR is bullish this week.
AUD
It was a bit of a quiet week for the AUD, with not many major economic events happening. The Retail Sales s.a. (MoM) data was positive, having an actual of 1.4% vs the 1% that was forecasted. Other data results in the last week included medium impact events, which included HIA New Homes Sales, Westpac Leading Index and the Commonwealth Bank Manufacturing PMI, which all had positive results.
In the coming week, there are only two high impact economic events for the AUD happening on Wednesday (28/04) which include the RBA Trimmed Mean CPI (QoQ) and the Consumer Price Index (QoQ).
Our outlook for the AUD is bullish this week.
GBP
The GBP had mostly positive data results in the last week. This included the Claimant Count Change, which had an actual of 10.1K vs the higher consensus of 24.5K. ILO Unemployment Rate also decreased from the 5.1% consensus to 4.9% actual. More positive economic data included the Markit Services PMI which increased from the previous reading of 56.3 to 60.1. However, the Consumer Price Index (YoY) had negative results, decreasing from the 0.8% consensus to 0.7% actual.
There are no high impact economic events for the GBP in the coming week.
Our outlook for the GBP is bullish this week.