In his first address to a joint session in Congress yesterday President Trump outlined some of the areas on his agenda. Trump highlighted his aim to bring investment and jobs back to the US, and the withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Trump also reiterated his plans to re-shape corporate tax and to replace Obamacare with lower cost and increased-access healthcare reforms. President Trump also pledged to overhaul the US immigration system and to take a hard stance against radical islamic terrorism.
The Buck managed to look beyond the fact that details from Trump’s agenda are still come, and managed to shake off early lows of 101.23 as it heads higher, and is currently at 101.63 on the US dollar index (DXY).
The USD found support on the back of expectations for a March rate hike as a number of Federal Reserve policymakers spoke about how a rate rise is very much on the books and how it has become “..a lot more compelling”.
Australian GDP for the 4th Quarter came in better than expected and improved on the previous reading, the Q/Q number was 1.1% while on the Y/Y basis it was 2.4%. Overnight we also saw that Chinese manufacturing PMI for February came in stronger than expected and also stronger than the previous reading – with the actual figure at 51.6.
From the European session we have German unemployment rate and CPI, UK PMI manufacturing; later towards the open of the US session we have BoC rate decision, that is largely expected to stay on hold at 0.5%, and US ISM manufacturing.
