CHF Plunges on Intervention

The dollar was mixed in the Thursday session, rallying against the Swissie to a 3-month high while slumping versus the euro. US equities maintained a buoyant tone with the Dow Jones edging higher by over 2.5% to recover above the key 7000-level, while the S&P 500 was up by nearly 3% to 743.

Economic reports released earlier saw weekly jobless claims jump to 654k versus 639k from a week earlier. Retail sales in February were better than expected with the headline figure posting a 0.1% decline versus a 1.0% increase in January and the excluding autos reading increasing by 0.7%, down slightly from 0.9% from January. The data slated for release on Friday include January trade deficit, expected to improve $38 billion from a month earlier at $39.93 billion. The University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey in March is seen drifting to 55.0, down from 56.3 while the expectations component is expected to decline to 49.0 versus 50.5 from February.