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Americas Roundup: Dollar posts best week in 15 months amid market turmoil, Wall Street ends whipsaw week on upbeat note, Gold dips, Oil skids to biggest weekly loss in 2 years amid market turmoil-February 10th 2018

Market Roundup

• US Dec Wholesale Invt(y), R MM, 0.4%, 0.2% previous, 0.2% previous.

• US Dec Wholesale Sales MM, 1.2%, 0.6% forecast, 1.5% previous, 1.9% revised.

• US w/e ECRI Weekly Index, 152.2, 151.6 previous.

• US w/e ECRI Weekly Annualized, 8.8%, 7.3% previous.

• Trump signs deal to end brief government shutdown, increase U.S. spending.

• EU's Barnier warns Britain post-Brexit transition "not a given".

• Kuroda reappointment at BOJ seen as sign stimulus policy will go on.

• Canada Jan Employment Change, -88.0k, 10.0k forecast, 78.6k previous, 64.8k revised.

• Canada Jan Unemployment Rate, 5.9%, 5.8% forecast, 5.7% previous, 5.8% revised.

• Canada Jan Full time employment change, 49.0k, 23.7k previous, 23.2k revised.

• Canada Jan Part time employment change, -137.0k, 54.9k previous, 41.6k revised.

• Canada Jan Participation Rate, 65.50%, 65.80% previous.

Looking Ahead - Economic Data (GMT)

• No major econ events

Looking Ahead - Events, Other Releases (GMT)

• No major events

Currency Summaries

EUR/USD is likely to find support at 1.2161 levels and currently trading at 1.2235 levels. The pair has made session high at 1.2277 and hit lows at 1.2203 levels. Euro declined against the dollar on Friday as some traders piled into the greenback in a week of tremendous swings felt in stock and bond markets around the world. The U.S. currency stemmed its protracted decline this week. Some traders have bought it to close out their bets on its weakness, while others favored the dollar in a safe-haven move over higher-returning but riskier currencies. The dramatic moves in equities and bonds this week were stoked by concerns about signs of inflation amid an improving global backdrop and speculation whether the Federal Reserve and other major central banks would act quicker to raise interest rates. The dollar's advance was supported by some stabilization in U.S. stock prices, a day after heavy selling sank the Dow and S&P 500 into correction territory. The dollar also received support after Congress and U.S. President Donald Trump approved a federal budget plan that ended an overnight federal shutdown. Against a basket of six major currencies, the greenback was up 0.21 percent at 90.420. On the week, the dollar index has risen 1.41 percent for its best week in almost 15 months. The euro was last down 0.08 percent at $1.2233, marking a 1.7 percent drop this week which would be its steeply weekly decline since November 2016.

GBP/USD is supported in the range of 1.3736 levels and currently trading at 1.3825 levels. It reached session high at 1.3841 and dropped to session low at 1.3760 levels. The British pound declined against the greenback on Friday after the European Union's Brexit negotiator warned Britain that a post-Brexit transition deal was not a given. The pound enjoyed a bounce on Thursday when the Bank of England said interest rates probably needed to rise sooner and by more than it previously thought, as global growth helped the UK economy. Markets moved to price a 70 percent chance of a rate hike in May, up from 50 percent. But the British currency quickly reversed those gains on Friday after the EU's Michel Barnier said London had "substantial" objections to the EU's transition offer and that parts of it were not up for negotiation. The pound dropped 0.9 percent against the dollar to trade at a session low of $1.3786, its weakest since Jan. 17, before recovering slightly. Against the euro sterling fell as much as 0.8 percent to trade at 88.79 pence. Sterling has rallied this year as investors bet Britain can secure itself a transition deal with the EU and then leave the bloc next year on favourable terms.

USD/CAD is supported at 1.2543 levels and is trading at 1.2589 levels. It has made session high at 1.2690 and lows at 1.2558 levels. The Canadian dollar was little changed against its U.S. counterpart on Friday, rebounding from an earlier six-week low, as gains for U.S. stocks offset the biggest decline in domestic jobs in nine years.The decrease of 88,000 Canadian jobs was unexpected, against economists' forecasts for a gain of 10,000, and made for the biggest decline since January 2009. Still, all the job losses were part-time, as full-time jobs rose 49,000. The economy added jobs last year at the fastest pace since 2002. Chances of a rate hike in April slipped to less than 50 percent from 58 percent before the jobs report, data from the overnight index swaps market showed. The Bank of Canada last month raised its benchmark interest rate to 1.25 percent, its third hike since July. U.S. stocks opened sharply higher as technology and financial stocks rose, but the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average remained on course for their biggest weekly losses in at least six years. Commodity-linked currencies, such as the Canadian dollar tend to underperform when stocks fall. The loonie has retreated 2.6 percent since Wall Street began to head sharply lower a week ago. The Canadian dollar was last trading 0.1 percent higher at C$1.2611 to the greenback. The currency's strongest level of the session was C$1.2558, while it touched its weakest since Dec. 27 at C$1.2690.

AUD/USD is supported around 0.7754 levels and currently trading at 0.7801 levels. It hit session high at 0.7826 and made session lows at 0.7771 levels. The Australian dollar held handsome gains for the week against dollar on Friday concerns about recent market turmoil spurred selling of commodities related currencies. The antipodean currencies have had a rough ride this week as a tumble in global financial markets has rattled investors, shrinking risk appetites. The Aussie and the kiwi are favoured liquid hedging proxies during times of financial stress, and moves can often be volatile in the pair. The two were also under pressure amid expectations interest rates in Australia and New Zealand will remain at record lows for a long time. U.S. equity indexes vacillated between gains and losses in another volatile trading session after European and Asian bourses registered steep declines. The S&P 500 briefly broke below its 200-day moving average, a level seen as technical support, and then cut losses, a day after a plunge that confirmed a correction for the U.S. market. Concerns about higher bond yields and interest rates spurred recent selling of equities, disrupting an extended advance in stocks, though the retreat in the market had been long awaited by investors. The Australian dollar eased 0.2 percent to $0.7767, a level last visited in late December. For the week so far, it is down about 2 percent, piling on to the previous week's 2.3 percent decline.

Equities Recap

European shares fell to their lowest level in almost six months on Friday after a roller coaster week marred by a historic spike in volatility on worries a comeback of inflation would speed a shift to tighter monetary policies.

UK's benchmark FTSE 100 down up by 1.29 percent, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 ended the day down by 1.66 percent, Germany's Dax ended down by 1.63 percent, France’s CAC finished the day down by 1.83 percent.

U.S. stocks posted sharp gains on Friday, giving investors some solace after a week of huge swings that shook the market out of months of calm. .

Dow Jones closed up by 1.40 percent, S&P 500 ended up by 1.48 percent, Nasdaq finished the day up by 1.35 percent.

Treasuries Recap

U.S. Treasury prices gained on Friday after renewed weakness in equity markets increased demand for the low-risk debt.

Benchmark 10-year notes were last up 9/32 in price to yield 2.819 percent, down from 2.849 percent on Thursday.

Commodities Recap

Oil prices slid more than 3 percent on Friday as U.S. futures fell below $60 a barrel for the first time since December on renewed concerns about rising crude supplies.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled down $1.95, or 3.2 percent, to $59.20, the lowest settlement since Dec. 22. The session low for U.S. crude was $58.07. More than 845,000 contracts changed hands in another above-average day for trading volumes.

Brent futures fell $2.02 a barrel, or 3.1 percent, to $62.79 a barrel, its lowest settlement since Dec. 13.

Gold slipped on Friday, under pressure from a firmer dollar and worries about rising global interest rates, but still found some support as a safe haven asset as world stock markets fell.

Spot gold fell 0.3 percent to $1,314.49 an ounce by 2:05 p.m. EST (1905 GMT), just above Thursday's five-week low at $1,306.81. It was down 1.3 percent for the week so far, heading for a second straight weekly drop.

U.S. gold futures settled down or 0.3 percent at $1,315.70.

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