The Bank of Japan did not ruffle any feathers in mr Kuroda’s last policy meeting, helping the pair, but markets now brace for the highly anticipated US employment report

The Bank of Canada kept rates at 4.5%. This was in line with market expectations and its previous communication. By the middle of the year, the BoC expects inflation to moderate to 3%. It will continue to monitor the economy and is prepared to increase rates if needed.

A break below will be because of greenback strength as opposed to a deterioration in the euro. Rather, the ECB continues with its own hawkish rhetoric and the ECB will hike by 50 bps next Thursday. However, it’s all about greenback strength at the moment and data out of the United States

The dollar jumped on a hawkish testimony from Fed Chair Jerome Powell before the Senate Banking Committee. He said that “inflationary pressures are running higher than expected at the time of our previous Federal Open Market Committee” and that recent economic data is “stronger than expected.” This is in contrast to his comments in February when he spoke of the disinflationary process.

The hourly stochastic has made its way to its upper quintile. The longer it maintains this position, the better the chances of further USDOLLAR price appreciation.

FXCM’s USDOLLAR basket’s daily chart continues to trade in its bullish channel between the upper blue and red bands. The hourly chart is also showing positive developments. Its trend following EMAs and momentum based- stochastic have crossed. Development of angle and separation by the EMAs and movement by the stochastic into the 80+ area (blue arrow) will be a bullish development.

The pair advanced last week and remains stuck within the daily Ichimokou Cloud, as markets brace for Mr Powell’s two-day Congress testimony, which starts on Tuesday

The EURUSD daily candlestick chart is positioned in its weak channel, between the lower blue and red bands. It was pushed back into the soft area after moving out.

ISM Manufacturing data was released yesterday, printing at 47.7. A value under 50 shows contraction, whilst values above 50 are expansionary. There is concern over one component of the data - ISM Manufacturing Prices. This ticked higher at 51.3. This is a big jump from the previous 44.5 and is much higher than the 45.5 expected.

The pair started the day strong, but erases much of its earlier gains, as BoE Governor Bailey does not commit to more rate increases

Overnight, Australian CPI y/y showed signs of moderation, printing at 7.4%, lower than the expected 8.1% and the previous 8.4%. GDP was also softer at 0.5% q/q - 0.8% q/q was expected. After the release, the spread between the AU and US 2-year notes declined (red rectangle). This suggests that the RBA is less hawkish than the Fed. Markets still expects the RBA to lift rates next week, even if…