Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: US dollar rebounds late as the month winds down

Markets:

• Gold up $9.50 to $1826
• WTI crude oil up $1.25 to $76.93
• US 10-year yields down 1 bps to 3.91%
• S&P 500 down 6 points to 3977
• JPY leads, CHF lags

As the month wound down, it looked like we would generally be seeing some sideways moves and US dollar selling but the dollar bid arrived at the London fix and continued late. Lurking in the background is Wednesday’s German CPI number after hot prints from Spain and France today. That helped the euro initially but it ultimately finished 30 pips lower on the day.

US consumer confidence was initially greeted with cheers from the market and led to the lows of the day in the dollar but month-end flows likely swamped it later. Given the volatility in consumer confidence data lately, there may have been some skepticism as well.

USD/JPY rose as high as 136.93 in a fresh peak since December but it gave it all back in the final six hours of trading to hit 135.75 before a 40 pip bounce. Bonds were the driver there as yields bounced around.

Cable was strong in Europe but stumbled on fixing sales and continued lower, ultimately finishing 30 pips lower and putting a bit of an ugly candle on the daily chart.

Commodity currencies struggled late and CAD struggled all day despite rising oil and gas prices. The driver for the loonie was a soft Q4 GDP report that will likely take the pressure of the Bank of Canada to hike again, at least for the next few months. It ends a long string of upside data surprises, though some of that growth will be pushed to Q1.