EUR/USD
The European currency shows flat trading dynamics against the US dollar during the Asian session, consolidating near new local lows since April 1. On the eve of the euro, it was again trading mainly with a downward trend, developing the previous "bearish" momentum, which strengthened last Friday after the publication of a strong report on the US labor market.
Investors hope that now the US Federal Reserve will be forced to reduce existing economic incentives, but uncertainty still persists. Some support for the European currency yesterday was provided by optimistic macroeconomic statistics from Germany. Thus, in June, the volume of exports from the country increased by 1.3% MoM after an increase of 0.4% mom in May. Analysts also expected the indicator to grow by 0.4% MoM. Imports for the same period slowed sharply from +3.4% mom to +0.6% MoM, which led to a noticeable increase in the trade surplus from 12.8 billion euros to 13.6 billion euros. The focus of the trading participants' attention today is the ZEW survey on the level of business sentiment in the eurozone for August.
GBP/USD
The British pound is trading near zero against the US currency during the morning session, consolidating near the 1.3850 mark and waiting for new drivers to appear on the market. The instrument remains under pressure from the growing dollar, which received a new impetus to growth after the publication of a strong report on the US labor market for July last Friday. Now investors are waiting for comments from representatives of the US Federal Reserve, hoping that they will take a tougher position on the issue of reducing existing incentives. The British currency is slightly supported today by moderately optimistic macroeconomic statistics from the UK. Thus, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the volume of comparable retail sales in July increased by a record 17% YoY after an increase of 6.7% YoY in June. Analysts had expected growth of only 13.1% YoY. This week, British investors are waiting for the publication of a large block of statistics from the UK, where the greatest attention will be paid to the country's GDP data for the 2nd quarter of 2021. The forecasts are very optimistic and assume the growth of the UK economy by 4.8% QoQ.
NZD/USD
The New Zealand dollar shows a fairly active decline against the US currency during the Asian session, updating local lows since August 3. Trading participants continue to buy the US currency, waiting for a reaction from the US Federal Reserve to the strong labor market report for July, published at the end of last week and reflecting an increase in new jobs outside the agricultural sector by almost 1 million, which significantly increased the chances of tightening the monetary policy of the regulator by the end of this year. Today's statistics from New Zealand have a weaker impact on the instrument. Thus, the volume of retail sales using electronic payment cards in New Zealand in July increased by 0.6% MoM after an increase of 0.8% mom in June. Analysts ' forecasts suggested a decrease of 4% MoM. In annual terms, sales accelerated from +4% YoY to +4.7% YoY, which coincided with market expectations.
USD/JPY
The US dollar shows a slight increase in the pair with the Japanese yen during trading in Asia, updating local highs since July 26. Investors returned to buying the US currency after a slight correction the day before, when some buyers hurried to close their long positions. The main driver for the dollar remains expectations from the US Federal Reserve of actions aimed at reducing current incentives, against the background of the release of a confident report on the labor market for July. The macroeconomic statistics published today from Japan does not prevent the development of "bullish" dynamics in the nearest time intervals. Thus, the volume of bank lending in the country in July slowed down from + 1.4% YoY to +1.0% YoY, which, however, turned out to be significantly better than analysts ' expectations at +0.2% YoY. At the same time, the forecast of developments from Eco Watchers in July sharply decreased from 52.4 to 48.4 points, while the market expected a reduction to only 50.2 points.
XAU/USD
Gold prices show a corrective growth during the morning session, weakly recovering from record sales for two consecutive sessions. On the eve of the quotes collapsed to four-month lows amid actively growing investor fears that the US Federal Reserve will take action to reduce incentives by the end of this year against the background of the publication of a strong report on the US labor market last Friday. Additional pressure on the instrument was exerted by the growing yield of US Treasury bonds, as well as the general rise in market sentiment.