Forex: USD/CHF – Swiss franc giving ground

In European trading today the USD/CHF has rebounded from three-week lows at 0.9406, reached during the Asian session when demand for the USD slackened as the market digested the implications of no early wind-down to fiscal stimulus.

The pair has since rebounded to 0.9529 for the dollar to regain some lost ground.
Shortly, at 13.30 BST, the US Department of Labor is to publish its weekly jobless claims report, with the prospect of a further firming of the USD against its major peers.
The report will show the number of applicants for initial unemployment assistance in the week ended July 6 and recipients of ongoing unemployment insurance. Expectations have been for a drop of 3000 initial claims.

The US labour market appeared to have improved markedly in June, but unemployment has stayed at 7.6 percent, a fact seized on by the US Fed’s FOMC in signalling no early end to quantitative easing.
The FOMC minutes for the committee’s June meeting, released yesterday, reveal division on just what more positive signs are needed in the labour market for tapering to get under way.
Chairman Bernanke said after the release that, “We’ve made progress on [the labour market] but we still have further to go” Further, that “highly accommodative monetary policy for the foreseeable future is what’s needed in the US economy”.