It was hard to be negative about anything yesterday, that is unless you are a Dollar. There was positive news out of Australia, when Central Bank meeting minutes were released. They hinted at potential future rate hikes. That set the stage for building Greenback weakness. Next came the U.K, with all of their data releases meeting expectations including CPI data. The Dollar then shot itself in the foot with positive manufacturing data, as the Empire Manufacturing Index beat analysts expectations handily. This set the stage for risk to re-emerge as there was little to no new news on Greece. The EUR gained 1.28% to close near short term resistance at 1.38.

The commodity currencies; NZD and AUD were the big winners on the day, advancing 1.54% and 1.50% respectively. The positive manufacturing data invited traders to resume long commodity positions as demand is expected to rise to meet manufacturing needs. Commodities were up across the board with Gold and Oil gaining the most attention. Gold advanced $18.25 to close above it 50 day Moving Average. Oil picked up nearly $3 a barrel to finish the session above $77.

Global Equity Markets joined in the rally as well. The NIKKIEI 225 put on an additional 20.95 points, while in the Euro-zone, the DJ EURO STOXX 50 added 36.94 to close at 2,720.77 and the FTSE 100 Index gained 76.59 points to end the day at 5,244.06. In the U.S, following Monday’s Holiday the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 169.67 points to close at 10,268.81 (see chart below). Leading the way were Financials as Barclay’s reported better than expected earnings. Oil and Gas were close behind at 2.55% as commodity prices were up sharply.

daily recap feb17