Here are the key factors to keep in mind today for US Dollar trades:

• US New York Empire Manufacturing Index: Economists predict a turnaround in the New York Federal Reserve manufacturing region for May. Expectations call the Empire Manufacturing Index to increase to a level of 5.00. Forex traders can compare this to the level of -1.19 reported in April. A level above 0.00 translated to an expansion in manufacturing while a level below 0.00 means that the regional manufacturing sector contracted.
• US Industrial Production/US Manufacturing Production/US Capacity Utilization: Expectations call for industrial production in the US to have not moved in April. The 0.0% economists are looking for does represent a great improvement if compared to the 0.6% contraction reported in March. Manufacturing Production is expected to increase by 0.2% in April which forex traders can compare to the 0.1% increase reported in March. Capacity utilization is expected to decrease by 0.1% in April to 78.3% from the 78.4% reported in March.
• University of Michigan Consumer Confidence: The US consumer may have not grown more confident in May as University of Michigan Consumer Confidence is expected to remain unchanged from April at 95.9. Consumers have shown no appetite to spend or were simply unable to do so as was evident in advanced retail sales which showed no gain.

Here are the key factors to keep in mind today for Japanese Yen trades:

• Japanese Loans & Discounts: A slowdown in the Japanese loans & discounts sector was reported during the Asian morning session as loans & discounts came in at 3.01% for March. This can be compared to the 3.22% annualized rate reported in February.
• Japanese Corporate Goods & Price Index: Expectations called for an increase of 0.1% in the Japanese Corporate Goods & Price Index for April monthly and for an annualized contraction of 2.1%. Forex traders can compare this to the 0.3% increase reported in March and the annualized increase of 0.7%. Expectations were met as the Japanese Corporate Goods & Price Index met what economists were looking for.

Open your PaxForex Trading Account now and add this currency pair to your forex portfolio.