Henry Liu
Former FPA Special Consultant
- Messages
- 473
We'll be getting the Core Retail Sales (and Retail Sales) figure out of U.S. today, as high impact news releases are concerned, Retail Sales makes up about 2/3 of U.S. GDP... Here's the forecast:
8:30am (NY Time) US Core Retail Sales Forecast 0.0% Previous -1.1%
ACTION: USD/JPY (CORE) BUY 0.6% SELL -0.6%
The Basic Trading Plan
Since we have both Retail Sales (Headline and Core, also known as ex auto) scheduled to be released at the same time, we should concentrate on the Core Release as it’s a better picture of the retail activities. However, it’s important to make sure there is no conflict between both releases or we should just stay out of the market until a new direction has been established.
The plan to trade this release is straight forward. We are going to wait for 0.6% of release or better to BUY USD/JPY (sell JPY), or a -0.6% or worse to SELL USD/JPY (buy JPY)… If we get a in-between release, we’ll need to look at the pre-release market condition in order to make a decision, or just stay out of the market altogether.
The Market
Current market condition is somewhat driven by risk appetite as result of the postive Greek debt offering today and the surprise resilience of inflationary pressure in UK. Today's overall market is characterized with a strong demand for risk assets including all major commodity currencies... With that being said, having a strong Core Retail Sales reading will surely push current risk appetite sentiment to the next level, but a worse reading may add to the sell-offs on USD (against JPY) and curb risk appetite sentiment.
Additional Thoughts
With the current high unemployment rate and the dismal NFP readings in June, Retail Sales probably dropped to a worse than expected level. Auto sales reported by 2 of the largest automakers, Ford and GM, showed lower than expected demand, which will probably keep the headline Retail number low as well...
Retail sales reported by Target and GAP Inc. were also lower than forecasted, and these two retail giants sales activities were probably typical for the entire Retail sector in the U.S.
Therefore, market could be looking for a worse than expected release, we may even see some early sentiment moves attempting to price in this release ahead. If we get a surprise better than expected release, we should see a strong weakness in the JPY, which should give us a great trade on LONG USD/JPY. If we get a worse than expected release, JPY should strengthen and may push beyond the 88.00 level and retest the 87.00.
Important note: I use USD/JPY to gauge the market sentiment, especially when trading US news releases, since both JPY and USD are safe-haven currencies. However, the real underlying factor for this release is not a strong/weak USD, but risk appetite/aversion sentiment. On a risk appetite sentiment (or better Retail Sales), one can trade GBP/JPY LONG instead. One a risk aversion sentiment (or worse Retail Sales), one can SELL GBP/JPY.
DEFINITION:
“(Retail Sales Core) Derivative of Retail Sales that excludes the Automobile Sales component. Automobile Sales make up roughly 25% of Retail Sales, but they can be very volatile from month to month and can distort the picture. Retail Sales with the exclusion of this volatile component is thought to be a better indicator of the underlying trend in consumer spending.”
For previous releases data of US Core Retail Sales and historical charts, click below:
US Core Retail Sales & Historical Charts
For more information on my trading method:
Henry Liu's News Trading Method
To see the actual charts, make sure you click on the "File Box" next to the news item on the right hand side. Historical chart should pop up in a new window.
8:30am (NY Time) US Core Retail Sales Forecast 0.0% Previous -1.1%
ACTION: USD/JPY (CORE) BUY 0.6% SELL -0.6%
The Basic Trading Plan
Since we have both Retail Sales (Headline and Core, also known as ex auto) scheduled to be released at the same time, we should concentrate on the Core Release as it’s a better picture of the retail activities. However, it’s important to make sure there is no conflict between both releases or we should just stay out of the market until a new direction has been established.
The plan to trade this release is straight forward. We are going to wait for 0.6% of release or better to BUY USD/JPY (sell JPY), or a -0.6% or worse to SELL USD/JPY (buy JPY)… If we get a in-between release, we’ll need to look at the pre-release market condition in order to make a decision, or just stay out of the market altogether.
The Market
Current market condition is somewhat driven by risk appetite as result of the postive Greek debt offering today and the surprise resilience of inflationary pressure in UK. Today's overall market is characterized with a strong demand for risk assets including all major commodity currencies... With that being said, having a strong Core Retail Sales reading will surely push current risk appetite sentiment to the next level, but a worse reading may add to the sell-offs on USD (against JPY) and curb risk appetite sentiment.
Additional Thoughts
With the current high unemployment rate and the dismal NFP readings in June, Retail Sales probably dropped to a worse than expected level. Auto sales reported by 2 of the largest automakers, Ford and GM, showed lower than expected demand, which will probably keep the headline Retail number low as well...
Retail sales reported by Target and GAP Inc. were also lower than forecasted, and these two retail giants sales activities were probably typical for the entire Retail sector in the U.S.
Therefore, market could be looking for a worse than expected release, we may even see some early sentiment moves attempting to price in this release ahead. If we get a surprise better than expected release, we should see a strong weakness in the JPY, which should give us a great trade on LONG USD/JPY. If we get a worse than expected release, JPY should strengthen and may push beyond the 88.00 level and retest the 87.00.
Important note: I use USD/JPY to gauge the market sentiment, especially when trading US news releases, since both JPY and USD are safe-haven currencies. However, the real underlying factor for this release is not a strong/weak USD, but risk appetite/aversion sentiment. On a risk appetite sentiment (or better Retail Sales), one can trade GBP/JPY LONG instead. One a risk aversion sentiment (or worse Retail Sales), one can SELL GBP/JPY.
DEFINITION:
“(Retail Sales Core) Derivative of Retail Sales that excludes the Automobile Sales component. Automobile Sales make up roughly 25% of Retail Sales, but they can be very volatile from month to month and can distort the picture. Retail Sales with the exclusion of this volatile component is thought to be a better indicator of the underlying trend in consumer spending.”
For previous releases data of US Core Retail Sales and historical charts, click below:
US Core Retail Sales & Historical Charts
For more information on my trading method:
Henry Liu's News Trading Method
To see the actual charts, make sure you click on the "File Box" next to the news item on the right hand side. Historical chart should pop up in a new window.
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