EUR/USD got out of the perfect range and dipped lower, retreating quickly. Today is a rather light day in terms of events. Will it lose the critical support line? Here is a quick update on technicals, fundamentals and community trends. EUR/USD supported twice (red line) at 1.2660, twice resisted at 1.2770 and dipped lower. Click to enlarge. EUR/USD Technicals Asian session:  A dip lower to 1.2640 and a retreat back to the range. Current Range is between 1.2660 to 1.2770. Further levels: Below, …

In the year-to-date, the Swiss Franc has risen 3% against the Dollar, 15% against the Euro, and more than 5% on a trade-weighted basis. It recently touched a record low against the Euro, and is closing in on parity with the USD. Since the beginning of the summer, the Franc has rallied by an unbelievable 15% against the Greenback. I don’t think I’m alone in scratching my head in bewilderment wondering, What could possibly be behind the Franc’s rise? By this point, everyone is familiar with the safe-haven phenomenon. Basically, concerns of a double-dip recession have ignited a flare-up in risk aversion and spurred investors to shift capital into locales and investment vehicles that are perceived as less risky…

Canada ‘s employment change and Unemployment Rate are the main events on the last day of this trading week. Here is an outlook on today’s market-moving events. In Canada, employment change showed an unexpected decrease of 9300 jobs in July after excellent figures in the previous months an addition of 23.9K new jobs is predicted now to help the loonie and Unemployment Rate is expected …

Price action on USD/CAD (a 4-hour chart of which is shown) as of Thursday (9/09/2010) has dropped down to hit key support in the 1.0300 price region on continued bearishness off a swift drop from the 1.0500 area resistance. This occurs within the context of a prolonged horizontal trading range consolidation that has characterized this currency pair since the last quarter of 2009. For more technical analysis

After a one month pause, Australia returned to posting excellent job figures, with the unemployment rate dropping to 5.1%. The reaction built up slowly, but now, the previous resistance line far behind, and the pair is at a 4 month high. Update on this strong currency. Australia enjoyed many months of improving job figures. Last month, job data was mixed , with…

I have received a number of requests for my Currency Checklist excel spreadsheet which I fill out every morning before I trade (admittedly some of them are linked to real time feeds and are automatically filled out) but here it is! This is the same Currency Pair Checklist shown in Chapter 8 of Day Trading and Swing Trading the Currency Market This purpose of this checklist is to get a feel for the market and to identify…

The European sovereign debt crisis has come back to haunt the euro. In the beginning of the year, European debt problems drove the EUR/USD from 1.45 down to 1.1877. When the fears receded, the euro climbed back above 1.33. However now that the fears that have gripped the currency for most of the year has returned, the euro is once again under aggressive selling pressure. Yesterday the Wall Street Journal broke the story and according to their report, the total exposure of banks varies widely depending upon the source of the information. For example, the stress tests showed that French banks only held EUR 6.6 billion worth of Spanish debt and EUR11.6 …

U.S. and Canada’s Trade Balance and employment figures are the most influential events on our calendar before we close another week of trade. Here is an outlook on today’s events. In the US, Unemployment Claims an important signal of overall economic health expecting to continue last week’s drop by another 2k reaching 470K. Later in the US, Trade Balance deficit grew wider than expected by growing to almost 50 billion a decrease to in deficit to 47.4B is expected now. Finally in the US, Crude Oil Inventories released weekly expected a small increase of 0.7M after 3.4M increase last week…

Price action on AUD/USD (a 4-hour chart of which is shown) as of Wednesday (9/08/2010) has resumed its bullish stance, after a bearish pullback, to approach the last major resistance high around 0.9220 reached in early August. This occurs within the context of a general uptrend extending from the June low. For more technical analysis on this currency pair, please click here for Wednesday’s (9/08/2010) Chart of the Day . James Chen, CTA, CMT * For information on my DVD set, High-Probability Trend Following in the Forex Market , please click here . * For information on my book, Essentials of Foreign Exchange Trading (Wiley), please click here . * For information on my new book, Essentials of Technical Analysis for Financial Markets (Wiley), please click here .  

The Bank of Canada raised the interest rate for a third time in a row to 1%. This partial surprise sends USD/CAD down to another attempt on the support line. USD/CAD fell from 1.0470 to 1.0415 at the time of writing. The Canadian dollar is now approaching a significant line: Update 14:00 GMT : Canada’s important indicator, Ivey PMI was stellar – 65.9 points, 10 points more than expected. USD/CAD broke below 1.04 and now trades at 1.0370. The veteran 1.04 line is very close now. A break under this line will send USD/CAD down towards 1.0280, although a similar break yesterday ended only at 1.0340. Below 1.0280, the next lines are 1.02 and 1.01. A rebound will send the pair towards 1.05, and later 1.0680. There was no clear cut consensus about this particular rate decision. The majority of economists surveyed before the…