By FX Empire.com

Economic Events: (GMT)

US markets closed for the Presidents Day Holiday

Feb. 20 00:01 GBP Rightmove House Price Index (MoM)

07:00 EUR German Import Price Index (MoM)

07:00 CHF Trade Balance

08:15 CHF Employment Level

23:50 JPY Trade Balance

The Trade Balance measures the difference in value between imported and exported goods and services over the reported period. A positive number indicates that more goods and services were exported than imported.

A higher than expected reading should be taken as positive/bullish for the JPY, while a lower than expected reading should be taken as negative/bearish for the JPY.

USD/CAD Fundamental Analysis February 20, 2012, Forecast

USD/CAD Fundamental Analysis February 20, 2012, Forecast

Analysis and Recommendations:

The USD/CAD is currently trading 0.9958 down from this mornings opening of 0.9967. Traders are optimistic and moving to more risky assets as news from Greece of a possible agreement. Moves by the ECB on a new bond old bond swap, lifted the spirits of investors along with comments by Merkel and Monti that a deal might be in place by Monday. Monday will be a quiet day as the US markets are closed for the Presidents Day Holiday

The US economy is expected to continue strengthening, possibly picking up this spring and summer, the Conference Board said Friday as it detailed its index of leading economic indicators grew 0.4% in January, led by the interest-rate spread and manufacturing hours.

The underlying rate of U.S. inflation accelerated by the fastest pace in four months in January, the Labor Department said Friday. The consumer price index increased 0.2%, pushed by the first increase in gasoline prices since September. Food prices rose 0.2 % for the second straight month. The core CPI index, excluding food and energy costs, was up 0.2% in January. Economists were expecting the CPI to rise 0.3% in January after remaining flat in the prior month. The core rate was expected to rise 0.2% after rising 0.1% in the previous month.

The government’s consumer price index rose 0.2

Friday February 17, 2012 Economic Reports actual v. forecast

SGD

Singaporean Trade Balance

1.26B

7.61B

EUR

German PPI (MoM)

0.6%

0.2%

-0.4%

EUR

Current Account

2.0B

2.3B

-0.9B

GBP

Retail Sales (MoM)

0.9%

-0.2%

0.6%

BRL

Brazilian Unemployment Rate

5.5%

5.4%

4.7%

CAD

Core CPI (MoM)

0.2%

0.1%

-0.5%

CAD

CPI (MoM)

0.4%

0.3%

-0.6%

USD

Core CPI (MoM)

0.2%

0.3%

0.1%

USD

CPI (MoM)

0.2%

0.3%

0.0%

CAD

Leading Indicators (MoM)

0.7%

0.6%

0.7%

Sovereign Bond Auction Schedule

Feb 20-24 n/a UK 0.375% 2062 I/L Gilt syndication

Feb 20 10:10 Norway Nok 3bn 4.5% May 2019 DSL

Feb 20 10:10 Slovakia Eur 0.15bn Apr 2014 & Eur 0.05bn Nov 2016 bonds

Feb 21 09:30 Spain 3 & 6M T-bill auction

Feb 21 15:30 UK Details gilt auction on Mar 01

Feb 21 18:00 US Auctions 2Y Notes

Feb 22 10:10 Sweden Nominal bond auction

Feb 22 10:30 Germany Eur 5.0bn Mar 2014 Schatz

Feb 22 16:30 Italy Details CTZ/BTPei on Feb 24 & BOT on Feb 27

Feb 22 18:00 US Auctions 5Y Notes

Feb 23 10:10 Sweden Sek 0.75bn I/L bond auction

Feb 23 16:30 Italy Details BTP/CCTeu on Feb 28

Feb 23 18:00 US Auctions 7Y Notes

Feb 24 10:10 Italy Auctions CTZ/BTP

Originally posted here