Daily wrap up – 30 August

After the markets calmed down with North Korea's tensions on financial markets yesterday after a missile launch over Japan and fall in the Pacific Ocean, the economic calendar today was full of a significant number of important economic data that had a significant impact on market movements.
In the United States, the private sector employment index added jobs above the 200,000 level for the second month in a row, adding 237,000 jobs in August to surpass market expectations as well as revised the previous reading to rise to 201K. The US economy grew by the fastest rate in more than two years during the second quarter of 2017, indicating the economic momentum continued with the start of the third quarter of the same year as GDP grew by 3%, while the previous reading was revised up to 2.6%.
In the light of these positive data, the US dollar interacted strongly with it, as the dollar index rose from its daily low of 92.17 to reach its highest level since last Friday at 92.79. Also, the USDJPY rose from its daily low of 109.53 to reach its highest level since mid-month at 110.43. The USDCAD hit its highest level since August 18 at 1.2636.
Early in the morning, RBNZ Governor Graeme Wheeler wanted to see the New Zealand dollar depreciate to support economic growth, and after positive US data, NZDUSD fall to its lowest level since August 24 at 0.7192.
GBP's decline was limited against the US Dollar despite positive data as it managed to reduce its losses to currently trading at 1.2923, supported by a three-day visit by British Prime Minister Theresa May to Japan for discussing the possibility of a trade partnership at some point after the Brexit.
For the third day in a row, crude oil prices continued to fall, while gasoline prices in the United States hit their highest levels since mid-2015 amid flooding and damage caused by Hurricane Harvey, which led to the closure of about 15% of US oil refineries. US Oil is trading now near to 46.50$ a barrel.