Good news from the US: the economy grew at an annualized pace of 3.5%, better than 3.3% expected. Also, durable goods orders came out above expectations and also consisted of upwards revisions. Only jobless claims missed.
The US dollar is slightly higher after the big data dump, with considerable gains against the Canadian dollar. The loonie focused on weak Canadian inflation figures and seems to ignore a big beat in retail sales. Elsewhere, EUR/USD is confined in a range, which USD/JPY aspires towards the 118 level. GBP/USD is still keeping a safe distance from the 1.23 level. AUD/USD and NZD/USD shrug off the strength.
The US was expected to report a small upgrade to Q3 GDP, from an annualized estimate of 3.2% in the second read to 3.3% in the third and final call. This publication is accompanied by a big bulk of other releases, most notably, durable goods orders.
The US dollar was trading in a mixed fashion ahead of this release, the last significant event before Christmas settles in.
US Dada (updated)
- GDP: previous 3.2%, expected 3.2%, actual: 3.5%.
- Jobless claims: prev. 254K, exp. 256, actual: 275K.
- Durable goods orders: prev. 4.6%, exp. -4.7%, actual: -4.6%
- Core durable goods orders: prev. 0.8%, exp. 0.2%, actual: +0.5%
- Ex-defense / ex-air: +0.9%, upbeat.
Note that also Canada released important data: CPI and retail sales.
More: EUR/USD: Make Or Break At 1.0465; GBP/USD: Make Or Break At 1.2330 – SocGen