Strong US Job Growth Delays Any Chance of a Fed Rate Cut (page 2 of 2)

France has industrial production, trade and consumer prices due for release. The European Commission will be publishing their first to third quarter GDP forecasts while the Eurozone reports industrial production.

British Pound - Like the European markets, the UK markets were also closed for Good Friday. The British pound underperformed against the US dollar for no reason other than the release of the strong US non-farm payrolls report. The only piece of news from the UK was the National Institute of Economic and Social Research's (NIESR) comments about growth. They said that economic growth probably slowed due to the slower expansion in the service sector. Looking ahead, even though the UK economic calendar is light, the data that they will be releasing next week will shed new light on how many areas of the UK economy are doing. We are expecting BRC retail sales, leading indicators, the RICS house price balance and the trade balance reports. Despite the Bank of England's decision to leave interest rates unchanged this past week, economic data has been decent. However, traders looking to buy British pounds should be cautious because the technical setup is very unfavorable as the weekly charts reveal a clear shooting star candlestick formation.

Japanese Yen - The Japanese Yen sold off against the majors despite slightly stronger economic data. Official reserves hit an all time high while the coincident index tripled expectations. Despite the upside surprise, both the leading and coincident economic indexes deteriorated from the prior month, indicating that the economy has worsened. Furthermore, the Yen hit a fresh year to date low against the US dollar and hit a fresh record high in EUR/JPY. This will certainly spur speculation that the Yen could be singled out at the upcoming G7 meeting. Japan has denied this possibility, but it is nevertheless one. The Bank of Japan has a monetary policy announcement on Tuesday where no rate changes are expected. They also have the current account, consumer confidence and CGPI due for release.

Commodity Dollars (AUD, NZD, CAD) - Stronger US economic data has also hit the Australian and New Zealand dollars, while the Canadian dollar remained virtually unchanged. The commodity markets were closed and there have been no economic reports from any of these countries. In the week ahead, the few pieces of data from the commodity bloc happen to be fairly important. Australia will be releasing its employment data along with the housing finance report. New Zealand will be reporting retail trade while Canada will be releasing its housing starts, new home price index and trade balance. Bank of Canada Deputy Governor Kennedy will also be speaking about monetary policy on Thursday. With the Canadian economy performing very in the recent month, it will be interesting to see if the central banker hints at any possibility of a rate hike.