Exchange rates and converters

The dollar was mostly firmer through the N.Y. session on Friday, as a lowered, but better than forecast Q4 GDP revision helped the greenback, while a soft Chicago PMI print was partially offset by better Michigan sentiment and pending home sales data. From a peak of 1.1245, EUR-USD slipped to new lows of 1.1176, as USD-JPY bounced over 119.75 from lows near 119.25. USD-CAD found support into 1.2450, before bouncing over 1.2525. Cable found buyers at 1.5400, and later rallied over 1.5460.

[EUR, USD]

     The news flow this week was remarkably light, with the US printing the bulk of the information.  Most of the news was related to the housing market, with the Case/Shiller new home price index coming in at 4.5% Y/Y rate, existing home sales dropping 4.5% and new home sales decreasing .2% M/M:

The first revision of 4Q 2014 GDP was reported this morning.  Generally it was a "meh," not changing much, although the small decline was mainly due to there being less of an increase in inventories, which is a wash.

EUR-USD found a toehold after yesterday's sharp dive to a 1.183 low, recovering above 1.1200. The baseline message from Feb boss Yellen's testimonies this week was that the Fed is in not immediate rush to tighten policy, but with Bund yields hitting fresh record lows on Thursday, the dollar's yield advantage continues to hold up, rebounding above 170 bp from levels near 160 bp over the last day at the 10-year T-note versus Bund level. USD-JPY traded a narrow range in the low 119s, unperturbed by a slew of month-end data releases out of Japan.