Dollar dives against the Japanese yen and remains soft across the board in US session after the release of much worse than expected Philly Fed index. The index dropped another month from -20.9 to -24.0 in Feb, lowest since 2001, versus consensus of a rebound to -10.5, suggesting that manufacturing activity continued to contract further. The data is supportive to further easing from Fed in near term. Other data saw Leading Indicators dropped -0.1% in Jan. Jobless claims dropped 9k from upwardly revised 358k to 349k.
Sterling rebounded strongly earlier today after much stronger than expected retail sales report and remains firm across the board. Retail sales in UK rose 0.8% mom, 5.6% yoy in Jan, much stronger than expectation of 0.1% mom, 4.6% yoy. Traders scaled back some bets for a near term rate cut considering the increasing inflationary pressure. Though, the easing cycle is not expected to end soon yet.
Swiss Franc, on the other hand, remains steady in range. trade surplus climbed from 0.18b to 1.215n in Jan, beating expectation of 0.8b. Combined PPI surprised the markets by rising 0.5% mom, 3.7% yoy in Jan, beating expectation of -0.1% mom, 3.0% yoy.
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