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Greenback Firms As Putin Roils Markets, Oil Hurts NOK

FOREX
  • The USD index has risen around 0.4% on Thursday and looks set to snap a two-day losing streak for the greenback.
  • Headlines from Russia’s Putin surrounding the issue of a decree demanding payment for natural gas in rubles. Despite appearing to temper the order by allowing dollar and euro payments through a designated bank, the headlines weighed on risk with major equity benchmarks grinding lower throughout the session and lending support to the USD.
  • The Euro was the main victim of the price action with EURUSD retracing back below 1.11 and settling towards the day’s low around 1.1070. Euro weakness was broad based as EURJPY and EURCHF both reside around 1% weaker.
  • The Japanese Yen has continued its unwind from oversold conditions with USDJPY briefly making a fresh low for the week below 1.2130 and nearly 400 pips from the high posted on Monday.
  • Substantially lower oil prices weighed heavily on the Norwegian Krona. USDNOK is seen over 2.5% higher approaching the APAC crossover, rejecting the breach of 8.60 and rising towards the best levels of last week around 8.80.
  • Eurozone CPI Flash Estimate for March highlights the European session on Friday.
  • However, focus remains on the US employment report. March nonfarm payrolls are expected to have risen by 490k according to the Bloomberg survey median. A few much softer analyst forecasts result in a lower average of 466k although the dispersion of views is relatively tightly packed between 450-550k and the primary dealer median sits at 520k.

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