Dollar Weakness Taking Hold Ahead Of PMIs

 | Jun 27, 2016 10:00

Market Overview

There has been a mixed outlook on equities taking hold across markets this morning along with some dollar weakness ahead of some crucial PMI data releases. After a strong run in recent weeks, there are a few signs of the dollar run stuttering now. A sharp dip back on Treasury yields yesterday reflects a lack of decisiveness, whilst the gains seen through the yen and gold also reflect a cautious market. Equities which had pushed so strongly higher last week are moving to correct some of those gains too. The first trading day of the month is jam packed with Manufacturing PMIs and the early signs are not all that positive. Overnight we had China announce both official PMIs for manufacturing and services, with 50.1 and 53.1 respectively, whilst the unofficial Caixin Manufacturing PMI disappointed at 49.2. Traders will now be looking out for manufacturing PMI data across the Eurozone, UK and the US ISM data.

Wall Street was mildly lower into the close with the S&P 500 -0.1%. The Asian markets were mixed to lower with the Nikkei especially under pressure down 1.6% as the yen strengthened. European markets are cautious in their early moves. In forex markets the dollar is coming under pressure across the board with the yen strength the standout. The Aussie is also an outperformer after growth data beat expectations with +1.1% for Q1, which will reduced some of the pressure for rate cuts from the RBA. With the dollar weakness of the past 24 hours it will be interesting to see if gold and silver can gain traction on their rebounds from yesterday.

The final Eurozone Manufacturing PMIs are throughout the early morning with the regional data at 0900BST expected to be in line with the flash readings of 51.5. UK Manufacturing PMI is at 0930BST and is expected to improve slightly to 49.6 (from 49.2) but would be crucially still below 50. The US ISM Manufacturing is at 1500BST and is expected to dip slightly to 50.4 (from 50.8).

Chart of the Day – EUR/GBP

Two weeks ago, euro/sterling broke below the key support at £0.7690 to complete a large head and shoulders top pattern which implies around 400 pips of downside will be seen in the coming three to four months. This pattern formation is the market moving increasingly to price in a victory for the Remain camp in the EU referendum. However, moves on a day to day basis have tended to move with the latest polling but the technicals continue to suggest that rallies will be sold into. Yesterday’s bullish engulfing candle muddies the waters a little but for now the trend is lower and unless there is another decisive bull candle today, this is another rally that is likely to be sold into. There is now a key resistance band of £0.7690/£0.7750 which needs to be watched as it has medium to longer term significance. The top of the band at £0.7750 a historic key pivot level on euro/sterling (which was the 2012 low, a key ow in October 2014 and has now subsequent pivot throughout 2016, not least of which catching last week’s high). Although there has been a slight tick higher on yesterday’s move, momentum indicators remain bearishly configured with the RSI tending to fail in the 50s, whilst the MACD lines are falling below zero and Stochastics also negative. Despite the hourly chart showing a near term recovery yesterday above £0.7640 which opens a rebound towards $0.7720 this would be right in the middle of the “sell-zone” and with it increasingly looking to be a bear rally now the resistance band £0.7700 would look interesting for the bears. Initial support is with yesterday’s low at £07560 and I expect this to be retested in due course.

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