• NASDAQ index rises by over 1%. Dow Industrial Average average flat
• 77 Tories are standing down ahead of the general election
• Crude oil futures trade to new session highs
• Bakers Hughes oil rigs unchanged in the current week
• European indices close unchanged/down. Lower for the week.
• Japan’s Kanda: Excessive FX moves undesirable. Ready to take action if needed
• ECBs Nagel: Core and headline inflation are decelerating
• Atlanta Fed GDPNow growth estimate for Q2 falls to 3.5% from 3.6%
• University of Michigan consumer sentiment versus 69.1 estimate. Preliminary 67.4
• Fed Gov. Waller: US financing pressures may contribute to rise in longer run neutral rate
• Kickstart FX trading for May 24 w/a technical look at the EURUSD, USDJPY and GBPUSD.
• ECBs Muller: ECB must stay cautious as inflation can surprise to the upside
• Canada retail sales for March -0.2% versus 0.0% expected
• US durable goods orders for April 0.7% versus -0.8% expected
• The EUR is the strongest and the CHF is the weakest as the NA session begins
• ForexLive European FX news wrap: Dollar lightly changed in mixed trading
• NZDUSD Technical Analysis – The market is slowly fading the US Dollar strength
• ECB’s Nagel: The probability of a June rate cut is increasing
• ECB’s Schnabel: A June rate cut is likely

As the week comes to a close, the CAD is ending the day as the strongest of the major currencies. The CHF is the weakest. The USD is mostly lower with modest gains vs the JPY and CHF. The CAD moved higher despite lower than expected retail sales in March. However, the estimate for April was solid at 0.7% offsetting the -0.2% decline this month.

The USD moved lower helped by more favorable Michigan consumer confidence. Not only did the confidence, expectations and current situation increase, but the inflation expectations moved lower (click here for the full report). An analyst on CNBC today did warn of the reliability of the data due to political bias. GOP respondents tend to have an overly negative view of the economy and inflation vs Dem counterparts. Recall in the preliminary, the confidence fall sharply while inflation moved higher. Today’s data saw those trends reverse some of the large changes from the preliminary numbers. What do you believe?.

Also in the US today, the US Durable goods orders came in stronger than expectations at 0.7% vs -0.8%. However, this data is open to sharp revisions. The Factory Orders to be released in about 10 or so days,will show the durable goods revisions. Last month, the revisions were quite significant (from 2.6% originally reported to 0.8% final).

For the trading week, versus the major currencies the USD was higher. Below is a review of the weekly change of the major currencies vs the USD:

• EUR: + 0.17%
• JPY, .+0.82%
• GBP: -0.30%
• CHF: +0.72%
• CAD: +0.3%
• AUD: + 0.93%
• NZD unchanged

In the USD market today, yields are ending the day with mixed results:

• 2- year yield 4.940%, +1.5 basis points
• 5-year yield 4.527%, +0.2 basements
• 10 year yield 4.466%, -0.8 basis points
• 30-year yield 4.572%, -0.7 basis points

For the trading week, yields are higher with the sugar and moving up the most is the yield curve go flatter:

• 2-year yield +11.9 basis points
• 5-year yield, +8.1 base points
• 10 year yield +4.5 basis points
• 30-year yield +1.1 base points

The 2-10 years spread is at -47.9 basis points which is more negative by -.7.4 basis points

The 2-30 year spread is and -37.7 basis points which is more negative by -10.8 basis points

In other markets:

• Crude oil is trading at $77.70 up $0.83 or 1.05%. For the trading week the price of crude oil fell $-1.76 or -2.22%
• Gold fell by $-79.97 or -3.31%
• Bitcoin rose $2683
• Ethereum surged by $648 to $3738. That is a gain of nearly 21% on the back of expectations that an Ethereum ETF would be approved.

Monday is a holiday in the UK and the US. Hoping all have a great weekend.

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.

The major US stock indices are all closing higher on the day, however with different variances.

• The Dow Industrial Average averages closing near unchanged at 39069.58 up 0.01%.
• The S&P index is closing up 36.86 points or 0.70% at 5304.71. A close short of its record close reached on Tuesday at 5321.42.
• The Nasdaq index is closing up 184.76 points or 1.10% at 16928.79.

The small-cap Russell 2000 rebounded 21.25 points today or 1.04% at 2069.6 X.

For the trading week, the major indices are closing with mixed results:

• Dow Industrial Average average fell -2.33%
• S&P index eked out a small gain of 0.03%. The gain was good enough for its fifth consecutive positive week
• NASDAQ and the rose 1.41% for its fifth weekly gain.
• Russell 2000 fell -1.24% snapping its 4 week up string.

Looking at individual stocks this week:

• Nvidia shares rose 15.13% after earnings beat expectations and the company announced a 10:1 stock split
• Meta Platforms, +1.34%
• Amazon, -2.14%
• Alphabet, -0.60% after closing at a record level last week
• Microsoft is closing at a record level and is up 2.37%
• Apple. rose 0.05%
• Tesla rose 1.0%
• Netflix rose 4.13%
• ServiceNow fell -3.47%
• Chipotle fell -1.92%
• Micron rose 3.35%
• Salesforce -4.66%
• Crowdstrike, rose 1.60%
• Dell rose 7.13%
• Gamestop fell -14.45%
• Trump Media, fell -10.03%

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.

The NZDUSD traded in a narrow range this week with a low to high range of only 70 pips . That is not a lot of movement. The good news is that next week, trader might be ready to move the pair outside of the narrow range. If so, look for momentum in the direction of the break.

To find out all about it, click on the video link above.

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.

The rats are leaving the sinking ship.

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.

As the week moves to a close, the USDCHF is higher on the week, but did find willing sellers against a topside swing ceiling. That ceiling stalled near 0.9146-0.9156. The price has rotated lower.

However, the close support at the 61.8% of the move down from the April/May 2024 high is stalling the decline today at 0.9133.

So going into the new week, both those levels are setting up as close support and close resistance. Move below 0.9133, and I would expect the sellers to take more control with the first target near 0.9105.

If the 0.9156 is broken, that opens the door with traders thinking about a retest of the May 1 high at 0.92237. PS that high is also near other highs going back in to 2023.

Find all about it, in the video above. Be aware. Be prepared.

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.