US Dollar could look past Trump’s Speech and Data

The Asian trading session has ended and we are waiting on Europe to open its doors for trading. Coming up for today, especially Dollar traders, is a speech by President Donald Trump before Congress and economic data.

The British Pound underperformed this morning in a quiet start for the week. The Pound lost ground against its G-10 counterparts as news reports are surfacing that Scotland will offer another referendum to leave the monarchy and UK Prime Minister Theresa May is gearing up for that. The Scottish parliament will introduce it in March as Britain announces Article 50 to leave the European Union.

Also, this morning, the Australian Dollar advanced after impressive fourth quarter corporate profits crossed the wires. The New Zealand currency fell this morning tracking bond yields lower. Traders are not expecting a rate hike from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand anytime soon and this putting pressure on bond yields. This comes after economic data showed the largest migration gain in 35 years. This could put a cap on wage growth and limit monetary tightening.

Economic Data on tap for Dollar traders

Looking at today’s economic calendar, the docket is pretty quiet in Europe which will put the focus back on Fed rate hike expectations for March. Today, during US trading hours we will get durable goods orders and pending home sales data. There are also comments from Dallas Fed President Kaplan. However the buck is likely to ignore this as President Donald Trump is talking before Congress tonight. Traders will be looking for directional cues on his fiscal policy tonight.