FX Rangebound in Listless Session by Korman Tam

The major currency pairs were little changed in a listless New York session, with the euro hovering just beneath the 1.36-level against the greenback and holding steady around 124 versus the yen. With no US economic reports scheduled for release today, traders took to the sidelines ahead of Fed Chairman Bernanke’s semi-annual testimony before Congress this week. Markets are looking for Bernanke to reaffirm the Fed’s stance to leave monetary policy accommodative and reiterating comments from the minutes of the last policy meeting. He will likely stress last week’s decision to lift the discount rate was part of a move toward “normalization” rather than a shift to quantitative tightening.

The US equity markets traded flat on the day while crude oil relinquished some of its overnight gains to dip beneath the $80-per barrel level. The economic calendar for Tuesday includes the December Case-Shiller home price index, the February Richmond Fed manufacturing survey, and the Conference Board’s consumer confidence survey. Consensus estimates are expecting the S&P Case-Shiller price index to be flat on a monthly basis in December compared with a 0.2% decline in November and post a 3.8% drop on an annualized basis versus a 5.3% fall in the prior year. The February Conference Board’s consumer confidence survey is estimated to edge up marginally to 56.0 versus 55.9 from January.