iFOREX Daily Analysis : March 13,2018

 | Mar 13, 2018 05:00AM ET

The US Dollar traded slightly lower against a basket of other major currencies with the US Dollar Index (USDX) closing 0.23% lower. The Turkish Lira (TRY) reached almost a 2 months low against the Dollar as the current account deficit for January was significantly higher than expected and rating agency Moody’s downgraded ratings on many Turkish commercial banks, citing concerns about the Turkish state’s ability to support the banking sector, should such need arise.

Gold pushed lower in Tuesday’s trading but closed almost unchanged at the end of the day despite US Treasury yields were lower and a weaker Dollar. The lower oil prices on Monday are attributed by commentators to concerns that the US could further increase shale oil production.

US equity indices closed mixed, however the NASDAQ (US Tech 100) reached a new all-time high. Positive sentiment from different tech companies, such as Micron (+8.89), Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) (+5.75%) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) (+1.53%) which is striving to now also offer banking services to customers.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency traded on Monday at a loss with Bitcoin again reaching below the $9,000 level.

Japan is due to release Capital Goods Price Index (PPI) data in the Asian trading session on Tuesday. Italy is set to publish Unemployment Rate figures. Then the US will publish inflation (CPI) data. In Wednesday’s Asian session China is set to publish Industrial Production (IP) and Retail Sales data and Japan its Tertiary Index.

GBP/USD


The GBP/USD (‘Cable’) reached its highest level since last Tuesday as the UK government announced a growth of 1.7% for the British economy in 2017 compared to the estimated only 1.5% growth. However there seems to remain a high amount of uncertainty surrounding the implications of Brexit as EU27 member states are pressuring the UK to come up with a compromise for the question of the border on the Irish island.

Focus of Tuesday’s trading will be on the publication of Consumer Price Index (CPI) data in the United States.