USD/CHF stuck in a near-term trading range around 100-DMA

The USD/CHF pair extended its range-bound price action around parity mark, consolidating recent slide to 100-day SMA support.

Investors continue to refrain from initiating any fresh long-dollar positions amid ongoing fears over the US President Donald Trump’s protectionist stance and lack of details over his fiscal stimulus plans. However, strong bullish sentiment surrounding global equity market has been weighing on traditional safe-haven currencies – like the Swiss Franc, leading to a near-term range bound price action.

Thursday’s higher-than-expected drop in Swiss trade surplus failed to provide any impetus, albeit helped the pair to defend 100-day SMA support for the time being. In fact, the Swiss trade surplus for December came-in at CHF 2.72 billion, down from previous month’s CHF 3.5 billion (revised from 3.6 billion reported earlier). 

Later during NA session, a slew of second-tier US economic data that includes - weekly unemployment claims, goods trade balance, flash services PMI, new home sales and CB’s leading indicator, would now be looked upon for some impetus for the pair’s near-term direction. 

Technical levels to watch

Currently trading around 0.9990-95 region, a follow through buying interest above 1.0020-25 zone (yesterday's high) is likely to accelerate the up-move towards 1.0060 horizontal resistance above which the pair seems to head towards reclaiming 1.0200 handle. On the downside, a convincing break below 100-day SMA support near 0.9975 region seems to drag the pair immediately towards 0.9950 level ahead of 0.9920-15 support area.