Forex Weekly Summary: EUR/USD, GBP/USD And AUD/USD Fell Sharply, USD/JPY Ended Above 131.00
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The dollar jumped on Friday after data showed that US employers created many more jobs in January than economists had expected, potentially giving the Federal Reserve more leeway to hold interest rate hikes. The dollar recently rose 1.12% to 102.92 on the day against a basket of currencies, the highest since Jan. 12 and is on track for its best day since Sept. 23.
USD/JPY
USD/JPY started the trading week at 130.4790. For a day and a half, the pair traded in the range of 129.80-130.45. Subsequently, the USD/JPY pair started its decline below the lower limit and dropped below the 129.00 level. Trading below 129.00 lasted until Friday where in the US session the USD/JPY pair sharply rebounded to above 131.00 and thus ended the trading week at 131.15. The final level was just below the week's high of USD/JPY at 131.1940. The difference between the highest and the nanny level of trading is quite large, because the pair reached the lowest level at 128.1160.
EUR/USD
The EUR/USD pair started the trading week at 1.0875. For a day and a half, the pair traded below 1.0900. After that, the EUR/USD pair rose above 1.0900 and reached a weekly high of 1.1030. Trading above 1.0900 continued until Friday, where in the US session the EUR/USD pair fell sharply below 1.0800 and thus ended the week of trading at the week's low at 1.0798.
The European Central Bank (ECB) raised its key interest rates by 50 basis points as expected and said it intends to make another 50 basis point hike in March, comments from ECB President Christine Lagarde weighed on the euro. Early Friday, ECB policymakers Gediminas Simkus and Peter Kazimierz said an interest rate cut this year was not likely.
Read next: The UK Economy Expects A Decline And Is Gearing Up For Recession| FXMAG.COM
GBP/USD
The Cable Pair started the week at 1.2404. For the next two days, the GBP/USD pair traded around 1.2300 until it broke out at 1.2400, after reaching the weekly high, the pair traded just below this level. The drop below 1.2300 came closer to Friday where the GBP/USD pair plummeted below 1.2100. GBP/USD ended the week at 1.2056, which is the lowest trading level of the week, the lowest since Jan. 6 and its worst day since Dec. 15.
The Bank of England, as widely expected, raised its key rate by a further 50 basis points to 4%, its highest level since autumn 2008, indicative of more sustained price pressures. However, the BoE removed the wording that "they will respond with force if necessary." Moreover, BoE President Andrew Bailey said that inflation will continue to fall this year and faster in the second half of 2023. In fact, the central bank forecast that the annual CPI inflation in the UK will fall from the current 10.5% to around 4% in toward the end of the year. This, in turn, has fueled speculation that the current cycle of rate hikes may be coming to an end and weakening the pound sterling.
AUD/USD
The AUD/USD pair started trading at 0.7111. The pair then traded in the 0.7000-0.7075 range. On Thursday, the pair managed to break above 0.7100 and record a weekly high of 0.7156. Closer to Friday, the couple began their decline. The Aussie Pair ended the week at its lowest level of trade for the week, at 0.6924.
The Australian awaits the RBA's interest rate decision on Tuesday 7 February. With the December quarter 2022 CPI print showing headline inflation is still running strong at 7.8 per cent, expectations are for a further increase in the cash rate.
Source: finance.yahoo.com, investing.com
