The USD/CHF is toying with 0.9000
The USD/CHF is trading directly into the 0.9000 major handle as US data beats drive the US Dollar (USD) higher against the Swiss Franc (CHF) for Thursday. US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Durable Goods Orders both firmly beat the street, vaulting over forecasts and sparking a bid in the Greenback, despite a soft miss for US labor figures that saw an uptick in Continuing & Initial Jobless Claims. Next Tuesday will see Swiss Retail Sales figures. In the meantime, there's little Swiss economic calendar data for CHF traders to chew on following Wednesday's miss in the ZEW business conditions expectations survey, which slipped from -27.6 to -37.8. US GDP printed at a stellar 4.9% for the annualized 3rd quarter, handily beating market forecasts of 4.2% and vaulting over the previous quarter's 2.1% printing.
US Durable Goods Orders for September likewise came in well above the waterline, growing 4.7% for the month compared to August's downward-revised -0.1% (originally printed at 0.2%). US Initial Jobless Claims bucked the trend to come in below expectations, showing an additional 210K new jobless benefits seekers for the week into October 20th, compared to the previous week's 200K (revised upwards from 198K). The US Dollar is testing into the long side of 0.9000 against the Franc after slipping from the price level last week, and is trading back into the 200-day Simple Moving Average (SMA). The pair is catching some technical support from the 50-day SMA currently lifting into 0.8974, trapping bids in the midrange and squeezing the USD/CHF higher. Last week's swing low into the 0.8900 level etches in near-term support, with the technical ceiling resting at early October's swing high bids near0.9250.