Home Forex Weekly Outlook – June 26-30 2017
Majors, US Dollar Forecast

Forex Weekly Outlook – June 26-30 2017

The US dollar enjoyed some strength thanks to the Fed’s  hawkish hike, but this did not last too long. What’s next? The Fed can continue influencing currencies thanks to speeches from top Fed officials, including Yellen. In addition, we have many other central bankers speaking and also some GDP figures. Here are the highlights for the upcoming week.

The US dollar enjoyed some hawkish words from Dudley, No. 3 at the Fed. However, the dollar’s ascent wasn’t one sided. Worries about inflation from Evans and Harker kept the dollar from advancing. Markets remain sceptical about further hikes. The pound had a volatile week, sent lower by Carney, lifted by Haldane and rocked by political uncertainty and the beginning of Brexit talks. Oil prices were on the decline, reaching 7-month lows, but the Canadian dollar did not follow oil that closely. The euro struggled against the dollar amid reports of delaying the announcement of QE tapering.

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  1. US Durable Goods Orders: Monday, 12:30. Orders of durable goods feed into GDP readings and also reflect investment. Back in April, the volume of orders slipped by 0.8%. Another slide, this time of 0.5%, is on the cards. Core orders, which are of interest to the Fed, dropped by 0.5%. A rise of 0.4% is on the cards for core orders.
  2. Mario Draghi talks: Monday, 17:30 and Tuesday at 8:00. The president of the ECB participates in an event in Sintra, Portugal. Amid reports that the announcement about QE tapering will have to wait for a long time, Draghi could provide clarifications. If he expressed worries about inflation, it will help keep the euro in check as well. If he focuses on strong growth, the euro could rise.
  3. Mark Carney talks: Tuesday, 10:00. The Governor of the BOE will present the Financial Stability Report and will speak at a press conference. Amid rising inflation, some of Carney’s peers have expressed a desire for raising rates. While the topic is not interest rates, any comments about them will rock the pound. He recently ruled it out.
  4. US  CB Consumer Confidence: Tuesday, 14:00. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence measure is gradually declining from the highs, settling at 117.9 in May. These are still high levels, but the decline is somewhat worrying. A small drop to 116.1 is on the cards.
  5. Patrick Harker talks Tuesday, 15:15. The President of the Philadelphia Fed will speak in London. In his previous public appearance, Harker surprised by expressing some worries about inflation. Will he repeat this stance? His speech serves as a warm up for Yellen, who follows up at the same event.
  6. Janet Yellen talks: Tuesday, 17:00. The Chair of the Federal Reserve expressed lots of optimism about growth and employment while dismissing inflation on one-off events. Since the rate decision, we had other Fed speakers such as Evans and Harker expressing concern, while Dudley doubled down on Yellen’s comments. Will she repeat her hawkish stance and boost the greenback? Or will she face reality?
  7. Central bankers panel: Wednesday, 13:30. Four governors will participate in a panel at Sintra: the ECB’s Mario Draghi, the BOE’s Mark Carney, the BOJ’s  Haruhiko Kuroda and the BOC’s Stephen Poloz all talk at one event. While some of them will have had separate events to talk at, this will be an opportunity to tackle worries about inflation all at once.
  8. US Pending Home Sales: Wednesday, 14:00. While sales of new and existing homes are quite stable, pending home sales are squeezing in the past two months. They dropped by 1.3% in May. A rise of 0.6% is on the cards.
  9. Crude Oil Inventories: Wednesday, 14:30. With oil prices tumbling down to 7-month lows, every inventory release matters. There is also a growing inverse correlation with the US dollar.
  10. US GDP (final): Thursday, 12:30. The second release of GDP was somewhat encouraging: annualized growth was revised up to 1.2% from the very poor 0.7% reported in the first release. A confirmation of the 1.2% growth rate is expected.
  11. UK GDP (final): Friday, 8:30. After the EU Referendum a year ago, the UK economy continued enjoyed robust growth throughout the year. However, the first quarter already saw a significant slowdown. In the second read of Q1 GDP, q/q growth was downgraded from 0.3% to 0.2%. We now get the final read which is projected to confirm the 0.2% read.
  12. Euro-zone inflation: Friday, 9:00. The European Central Bank has only one mandate: inflation. The flash read of inflation is closely watched and impacts the euro. Back in May, headline CPI advanced by 1.4% y/y while core inflation slipped under 1% down to 0.9%. Headline inflation carries expectations for a slide to 1.3% while core inflation is forecast to advance to 1%.
  13. US Core PCE  Price  Index: Friday, 12:30. This is the favourite inflation measure of the Federal Reserve, and it has been sliding. After edging closer to the 2% target, the measure slipped down to 1.5% y/y. Another drop is expected now, probably to 1.3% if the Core PCE follows the Core CPI. Month over month, a rise of 0.1% is predicted.
  14. Canadian GDP: Friday, 12:30. Canada reports its GDP on a monthly basis, so this time we get a look into Q2, with this report for April. Back in March, the economy grew by no less than 0.5%, encouraging the central bank to change its stance to hawkish. Can growth continue?

*All times are GMT

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Yohay Elam

Yohay Elam

Yohay Elam: Founder, Writer and Editor I have been into forex trading for over 5 years, and I share the experience that I have and the knowledge that I've accumulated. After taking a short course about forex. Like many forex traders, I've earned a significant share of my knowledge the hard way. Macroeconomics, the impact of news on the ever-moving currency markets and trading psychology have always fascinated me. Before founding Forex Crunch, I've worked as a programmer in various hi-tech companies. I have a B. Sc. in Computer Science from Ben Gurion University. Given this background, forex software has a relatively bigger share in the posts.