Event: US Home Prices

Date: Tuesday 29 August 2017 at 13:00 GMT

Markets affected: EUR/USD, USD/JPY

Trending hashtags: #usd, #homes

Standard & Poor’s Case-Schiller Home Prices index for June showed steady increase confirming how an improved jobs market driving demand combined with reduced supply of homes is having an effect on costs. Home Prices came in at the expected 5.7% increase in the surveyed metropolitan areas – similar to the previous month’s growth. Seattle, Dallas and Portland saw the biggest annualised rises with both the number of homes on the market and the length of time on the market have reduced.

Event: Japan Retail Trade

Date: Tuesday 29 August 2017 at 23:50 GMT

Markets affected: EUR/JPY, USD/JPY

Trending hashtags: #yen, #retail

Retail Trade in Japan came in above forecasts at 1.9% annualised change for July. It was a little below the previous month’s change of 2.2% but well above the expected 1.1%. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed retail sales hitting a healthy JPY 12.2 trillion for July which surprised many considering household spending was 0.2% down.

Event: Eurozone Data Releases

Date: Wednesday 30 August 2017 at 09:00 GMT

Markets affected: EUR/USD, EUR/GBP

Trending hashtags: #eur

Wednesday’s deluge of data for the Eurozone showed an improving business climate for the region. Economic sentiment for the month of August came in well above the 111.3 forecast at 111.9, the highest it’s been in a decade. The Business Climate indicator also came above forecasts at 1.09, Industrial Confidence also higher than expected to 5.1 and Services Sentiment also came above the 13.9 outlook to 14.9 as well as revising the previous month’s figure up too 14.2 from 14.1. Moody’s rating agency improved its forecast on the common zone’s economic growth for 2017 to 2.1% and 2018 to 1.9%. Regardless of all this positive data for the region, the EUR/USD remained under pressure following the positive GDP data from the US later in the day.

Event: US Gross Domestic Product

Date: Wednesday 30 August 2017 at 13:30 GMT

Markets affected: EUR/USD, USD/JPY

Trending hashtags: #usd, #gdp

Second quarter Gross Domestic Product came in at a higher than expected 3.0% versus the forecasted 2.7% increase. This is the best it’s been in over 24 months according to the Commerce Department. The expansion has been confirmed with strong consumer spending and business investment coming in so far the third quarter. There seems to be limited economic impact from the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey in Texas on 25 August.

Event: EU Consumer Price Index

Date: Thursday 31 August 2017 at 09:00 GMT

Markets affected: EUR/USD, EUR/GBP

Trending hashtags: #eur, #cpi

The euro has been retreating against the USD for most of this week and investor appetite did not improve for the common currency even after the release of the preliminary report on the consumer price index in the Eurozone which saw an increase to 1.5% in August compared to 1.3% in the previous month. The unemployment rate for the Eurozone that came out at the same time as the CPI came in at 9.1%, its lowest level since 2009 and in line with the forecast.

Trade of the Week

Time in: Tuesday 29 August 2017 at 23:00 GMT
Market: USD/JPY
Investment: $500 with 200:1 leverage
Time out: Wednesday 30 August 2017 at 13:00 GMT

P&L: $616

If you had bought USD/JPY with a $500 margin at the price of 109.563 and closed the deal once after the Japan Retail Trade data on Tuesday at 23:50 GMT which saw the currency pair increase 0.62%, you might have made $616. Note this example does not take into account spread.