Key Fundamental Forex Events for the Week of August 15^th through August 19^th

The following table lists the key economic data and other events that came out during the week of August 15^th through August 19^th, with release times displayed for the GMT time zone.

The list also indicates how much each release deviated from the market consensus forecast upon release, as well as what the affected major currency pair or pairs did after each event or set of events.

Monday, August 15^th

• 12:50am JPY - Preliminary GDP -0.3%, as expected. The JPY was down slightly.
• 2:00pm USD - TIC Long-Term Purchases 3.7B, as expected. The USD fell.

Tuesday, August 16^th

• 2:30am AUD - Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes noted that, "The case against tightening at this meeting was that the downside risks to demand had probably increased, as a result of the acute uncertainty in global financial markets”. The AUD fell slightly.
• 7:00am EUR - German Preliminary GDP 0.1% versus 0.5% expected. The EUR fell.
• 9:30am GBP - CPI 4.4% versus 4.3% expected. The GBP rose.
• GBP - The BOE Inflation Letter stated that, “growth is likely to remain sluggish in the near term, reflecting the continuing squeeze on households’ real incomes.”
• 1:30pm USD - Building Permits 0.60M versus 0.61M expected. The USD was mixed.
• 11:45pm NZD - PPI Input 0.9% versus 1.2% expected. The NZD rose.

Wednesday, August 17^th

• 9:30am GBP - Claimant Count Change 37.1K versus 20.2K expected.
• 9:30am GBP - MPC Meeting Minutes stated that, "The slowing in world demand growth and the heightened tensions in financial markets meant that the balance of risks to the medium-term inflation outlook had clearly shifted to the downside." The vote was 0-0-9 versus 2-0-7 expected. The GBP rose.
• 1:30pm USD - PPI 0.2% versus 0.0% expected. The USD fell.

Thursday, August 18^th

• 9:30am GBP - Retail Sales 0.2% versus 0.3% expected. The GBP fell.
• 1:30pm USD - Core CPI 0.2%, as expected.
• 1:30pm USD - Weekly Initial Jobless Claims 408K versus 403K expected.
• 3:00pm USD - Existing Home Sales 4.67M versus 4.92M expected.
• 3:00pm USD - Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index -30.7 versus 4.2 expected. The USD mostly rose.

Friday, August 19^th

• 9:30am GBP - Public Sector Net Borrowing -2.0B versus 0.4B expected. The GBP rose.
• 12:00pm CAD - Core CPI versus 0.2% expected.
• 3:00pm  CAD - BOC Governor Carney spoke, saying that, "In short, the considerable external headwinds that the Bank has long identified are now blowing harder." The CAD rose.

Technical Recap for the Majors This Week

EURUSD: 

Forecast: Mildly Higher
Actual: Higher from a 1.4266 open to a 1.4396 close.

USDJPY:

Forecast: Mildly Lower
Actual: Mildly lower from a 76.83 open to a 76.27 close.

GBPUSD: 

Forecast: Mildly Higher
Actual: Higher from a 1.6275 open to a 1.6553 close.

AUDUSD: 

Forecast: Higher
Actual: Mildly higher from a 1.0365 open to a 1.0429 close.

USDCAD: 

Forecast: Lower
Actual: Mildly lower from a 0.9870 open to a 0.9858 close.

NZDUSD: 

Forecast: Higher
Actual: Mildly lower from a 0.8315 open to a 0.8236 close.