US Dollar Index (DXY) portrays the market’s cautious mood around 103.35-30 as the annual Jackson Hole Symposium event begins on Thursday. The Greenback’s gauge versus the six major currencies dropped the most in three weeks while reversing from the highest since June 08 the previous day. While tracing the catalysts, the broad risk-on mood and a slump in the US Treasury bond yields could be held responsible for the DXY’s slump.
On Wednesday, major economies including the US printed downbeat Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for August and renewed concerns about the policy pivot at the major central banks. The same joined upbeat headlines surrounding the US-China trade ties to drown the US Treasury bond yields and the US Dollar afterward.
Talking about the data, US S&P Global Manufacturing PMI dropped to 47.0 for August from 49.0 versus 49.3 market forecasts whereas the Services counterpart also edged lower to 51.0, compared to 52.2 expected and 52.3 marked the previous month. With this, the S&P Global Composite PMI for the US eased to 50.4 for the said month from 52.0 prior and the analysts’ estimations. Further, US New Home Sales change rose to 4.4% MoM for July versus -2.5% previous readings.
Elsewhere, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s visit to Beijing, scheduled for next week. On the same line are the early-week news suggesting the US removal of 27 Chinese entities from its Unverified List, lifting sanctions from those entities and flagging hopes of improving diplomatic ties.
Against this backdrop, the Wall Street benchmarks also closed in the positive side while the US 10-year Treasury bond yields flashed the biggest daily fall in three weeks to portray the market’s optimism.
US Dollar Index reveres from a downward-sloping resistance line from early March, around 103.50 but the bears need validation from the 200-DMA support of 103.15 to retake control.