Euro up awaiting Powell speech

The Euro is trading higher against the US dollar as we move through today’s trading session as market participants get ready for a speech from US Federal Reserve president Jerome Powell where the main focus will be any indications that the US central bank plans to hike interest rates next month.

In yesterday’s trading session we saw a mixed bag of data from the US concerning the property market which has been under pressure recently due to the aggressive rate hiking cycle by the Fed.

Building Permits fell to 1.475M in September, against analysts’ expectations for a figure of 1.45M, while Housing Starts rose to 1.35M, below the market consensus of 1.38M..

From Europe, we saw the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) in the Eurozone released by Eurostat which came in at 0.3% in September which was in line with analysts’ expectations.

The yearly figure came in at 4.3% and European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde remarked that underlying inflation remains strong and wage growth remains historically high.

Looking further ahead today, the main drivers of the EUR/USD currency pair as already mentioned will be a monetary speech by Fed president Jerome Powell as well as a number of other speakers such as FOMC Vice-Chair Philip Jefferson (permanent voter, centrist), Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee (voter, centrist), Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic (2024 voter, centrist), FOMC Vice Chair Michael Barr (permanent voter, centrist), and Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker (voter, hawk).

Also, from the US market participants will await the latest initial Jobless Claims figures followed by the Philly Fed Manufacturing Index, the CB Leading Index, Existing Home Sales, and the Monthly Budget Statement.