Tuesday morning in New York, the Swiss franc recouped some of its early European session's losses against its major opponents. The franc thus gained from a 5-week low against the pound and a 4-day low versus the euro.
The alpine currency slumped in early European session as Switzerland's consumer prices in July recorded the biggest fall since August 1959.
Consumer prices slipped 1.2% annually in July, severe than the 1% decrease seen in June, the Federal Statistical Office reported. A year ago, annual inflation was 3.1%. Economists were expecting only 1.1% decrease for July. The core CPI, which exclude volatile items rose 0.9% annually in July.
Month-on-month, consumer prices dropped 0.7% in July, in contrast June's 0.2% increase. Monthly fall was also larger than the expected decline of 0.5% on clearance sales.
Hovering near yesterday's 7-week high, the Swiss franc touched 90.10 against the Japanese yen by 10:15 am ET, up 1.2 percent from its previous low of 88.98 hit around 5:30 am. The franc-yen pair, which closed Monday's deals at 89.96, is presently quoted at 89.85.
The monetary base in Japan was up 6.1 percent on year in July to 93.209 trillion yen, following the 6.4 percent annual expansion in June, the Bank of Japan said today. Seasonally adjusted, the monetary base fell 6.9 percent on year to 93.918 trillion yen.
Snapping back from its early European session's 4-day low, the Swiss franc advanced to 1.5259 against the euro around 10:15 am ET. In near-term, resistance is likely to be seen around the 1.524 level for the franc. The euro-franc pair that closed yesterday's deals at 1.5271 is presently quoted at 1.5277.
The euro-stat said in a report that industrial producer prices dropped by a record 6.6% year-over-year in June compared with a 5.9% fall in the previous month. The May figure was revised from a 5.8% decline reported initially. The annual decline came in line with economists' expectations.
On a monthly basis, producer prices increased 0.3% in June, after a flat reading in May. The increase was slightly more than the 0.2% anticipated by economists. The statistical office upwardly revised the 0.2% fall estimated initially for May.
Bouncing back from its early European session's 5-week low, the Swiss franc drifted higher to 1.7919 against the pound by 10:20 pm ET. The euro-franc pair is presently worth 1.795, compared to 1.794 hit late New York Monday. If the franc gains further, resistance is seen around the 1.789 level in near-term.
U.K.'s CIPS/Markit Construction Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 47 in July, a survey from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply and Markit Economics showed today. Economists were expecting the index to rise to 45 from 44.5 logged in June. However, the index stood below the neutral level.
Floating near Monday's multi-month high, the Swiss franc soared to 1.058 against the US dollar around 10:15 am ET from its previous session's low of 1.0649. The greenback-franc pair, which closed yesterday's deals at 1.0596, is presently quoted at 1.0606.
The US Commerce Department said in a report that personal spending rose 0.4 percent in June following a revised 0.1 percent increase in May. Economists had been expecting spending to increase by 0.3 percent compared to the 0.3 percent increase originally reported for the previous month.
At the same time, the Commerce Department said that personal income fell by 1.3 percent in June after increasing by a revised 1.3 percent in the previous month. The drop in personal income was the biggest decrease since January 2005 and was larger than market expectations for a 1.0 percent drop.
Pending home sales increased for the fifth consecutive month in June, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors today, with the increase in pending sales exceeding economist estimates by a wide margin.
Pending home sales index jumped 3.6 percent to 94.6 in June from an upwardly revised reading of 91.3 in May. Economists had been expecting a much more modest increase by the index of about 0.7 percent.
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