USD/CHF steady above 0.97, awaiting next catalyst
Following a drop to 0.9710 in the European morning, the USD/CHF pair gathered some bullish momentum and advanced to 0.9743 just before the NA session start, but failed to sustain this movement. As of writing, the pair is trading at 0.9730, virtually flat on the day.
Today's data from the United States didn't receive any significant market reactions. The Initial Jobless Claims rose to 241K from 238K on a weekly basis while the House Price Index remained unchanged at 0.7% on a monthly basis in April, beating the market consensus of 0.4%. Following the data, the US Dollar Index is at 97.26, up 0.04% on the day.
- US: Weekly initial claims was 241,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week
- US: House prices rose in April, up 0.7% from the previous month
After recording losses for two straight days on Tuesday and Wednesday, the pair seems to have gone into a consolidation phase and all the technical indicators in short-term graphs show neutral conditions. In fact, since the start of the week, the pair has been stuck in a 70-pip range, unable to determine its next short-term direction. The only noteworthy data that will be featured in tomorrow's economic calendar will be the Manufacturing, Services and Composite PMI from Markit.
Technical outlook
0.9800 (Fib. 38.2% retracement of May 11 - Jun. 6 fall/psychological level) could be seen as the first technical resistance ahead of 0.9910 (100-DMA) and 0.9985 (200-DMA). On the downside, supports alignt at 0.9700 (20-DMA), 0.9610 (Jun. 6 low) and 0.9550 (Nov. 9 low).
- USD/CHF neutral to positive near term – Commerzbank