USD Mixed, Pushes Higher Vs Forex Safe-Havens

The Greenback is posting a mixed session, gaining ground against the safe-havens. With about four hours left in the forex trading day, the USD/CHF (+0.06%), USD/JPY (+0.18), and XAU/USD (-1.02%) all favor the dollar. Ultimately, the underpinning of this action is unclear. At press time, there is no steep intraday Wall Street rally to drive “risk-on” sentiment.

All in all, it has been a quiet week on the American economic calendar. Here’s a quick look at today’s headliners:

Event                                                                       Actual               Projected             Previous

Continuing Jobless Claims (Jan. 30)                     4.545M                4.490M                   4.690M

Initial Jobless Claims (Feb. 6)                                  793K                      757K                       812K

Jobless Claims 4-Week Average (Jan. 30)              823K                       NA                        856.5K

Continuing and Initial Jobless Claims both came in above projections, suggesting that the U.S. labour market is once again floundering. However, the 4-week average is down by 33,500 jobs, which is a good thing. Honestly, I don’t think anyone is putting much stock in these figures right now. Until we begin to see consistently robust Non-Farm Payrolls numbers and the Unemployment Rate back under 5%, most experts are going to view the American jobs market as weak. 

For today, both safe-havens and U.S. stocks are struggling. However, the EUR/USD is on the bull. Let’s take a look at a possible pullback buying opportunity that may set up ahead of the weekend.

Safe-Havens Down, EUR/USD Up

Earlier today, the EUR/USD broke above the Weekly SMA (1.2101) and has rallied by 25 pips. The big question is this: will forex players bid it higher from 1.2125?

Bottom Line: Contrary to the bearish safe-havens, the EUR/USD is up and trading near 1.2127. If price pulls back to the Weekly SMA, a buying opportunity may come into play by the weekend. Until Friday’s closing bell, I’ll have buy orders in the queue from 1.2106. With an initial stop loss at 1.2074, this trade produces 30 pips on a standard 1:1 risk vs reward ratio.