USD Regains Footing as Equities Drift by Korman Tam

The greenback was higher against the majors in the Wednesday session, recovering from overnight losses to push the euro beneath the 1.36-level and rising above the 91-mark against the yen. US equity bourses relinquished earlier gains for a predominantly flat session. The economic reports released today included better than expected January housing starts, which climbed to 591k units from an upwardly revised 575k units in December and softer building permits at 621k units versus 653k units previously. The industrial production figure was better than forecast in January at 0.9% and up from 0.7% in December. Meanwhile, capacity utilization was in line with expectations at 72.6%.

The minutes from the Federal Reserve’s January meeting had limited impact on the markets as it was already priced in. The Committee deliberated the methods and timing for how to reduce the Fed’s assets and agreed unanimously to reduce its balance sheet in the “near future”. The sole dissenter, Kansas City Fed President Hoenig voiced his objection to leave the “extended period” component of the policy statement and suggested they “express an expectation that the federal funds rate would be low for some time”.

The economic calendar for Thursday will see weekly jobless claims, January PPI, Philadelphia Fed business survey and the leading economic indicators. Weekly jobless claims are seen falling to 435k from 440k. The headline January producer price index is expected to increase to 0.7% from 0.2% in the previous month. The February Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey is forecast to edge up to 17.0 versus the January report of 15.2.