Posted: 02 Jun 2010 02:20 PM PDT

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks in Chicago, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren delivers a speech in Springfield and Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas President Thomas Hoenig speaks in Bartlesville, Unemployment Claims and the major event of the day US ADP Non-Farm Employment Change. A day full of activities awaits us. Let’s see what’s on the menu today:

In the US, ADP Non-Farm Employment Change is expecting a welcome increase of 56,000 from April to May exceeding April’s score by 24,000. This great result is also a good forecast for tomorrow’s big event Non-Farm Payrolls since the ADP release goes in tandem with the official NFP bearing good news for the US dollar.

Later in the US, Unemployment Claims forecast this week also support the ADP release by dropping from 460K to 451K and ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI shows further improvement in the US market expected to go up from 55.4 to 55.9. Revised Nonfarm Productivity released quarterly is expected a slight drop of 0.1% from 3.6% in the previous quarter. Factory orders are also foreseen a decrease of 0.2% compared to May.

More in the US, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks on the financial needs of small businesses at the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, in Detroit, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren delivers a speech titled “The Federal Reserve’s Response to the Financial Crisis” at the New England Financial Executives Conference, in Springfield and Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas President Thomas Hoenig speaks at the Chamber of Commerce’s Federal Reserve forum, in Bartlesville. These may affect interest rates and give insight on future monetary policy.

Finally in the US, Crude Oil Inventories are expected to plunge -0.5B following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on April 21 affecting oil and share prices.

For more on USD/CAD, read the Canadian dollar forecast.

In Europe, Retail Sales are expected to rise from 0.0% to 0.1% which is the first positive change since July 2009 hopefully, a signal of recovery in the EU market.

For more on the Euro, read the EUR/USD forecast and Casey Stubbs' latest analysis.

In Great Britain, Halifax House Price Index is expected to rise by 0.3% compared to a drop of -0.1% in May giving a boost to the housing industry while Nationwide HPI is expected to decrease from 1.0% to 0.5% with accordance to Economists expectations.

Later in Great Britain, Services PMI is expected to rise 55.6 points after the drop of 55.3 in May where British service sector activity unexpectedly slowed, after a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland that closed UK airspace hampered transport businesses, and uncertainty about the election dented demand and confidence.

Read more about the Pound in the GBP/USD forecast.

In Australia, Australia is expected to dramatically reduce its Trade deficit by 1.3B to reach -0.77B pointing to economic growth and market activity.

For more on the Aussie, read the AUD/USD forecast.

That’s it for today. Happy forex trading!

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Gold ATMs Going Global – A Sign for Currencies?

Posted: 02 Jun 2010 02:09 PM PDT

Gold to Go, the manufacturer of gold ATMs, is working hard to meet the demand for its vending machines. From a gimmick of two machines operating now, their business will grow to 50 quite soon. This is the result of the rising prices in gold. Is this is a sign for the Euro? For the Aussie?

Gold to Go is a German company that created a Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) for buying gold, similar to the everyday action of withdrawing cash – just gold coins or gold bars. The first machine was launched in Abu Dhabi about a month ago, and the second machine started operating in Germany last week. This was only the beginning.

It is now reported that there is high demand for these gold ATMs – they are not a gimmick anymore. The company is working hard on producing 50 additional machines. The ATMs will be deployed in all of Malaysia’s airports, in Italy, Turkey and Russia. Gold rates are updated every 10 minutes according to global gold prices.

Gold and forex

The company’s appeal to average customers shows that physical gold is becoming more popular also outside the electronic charts. While these funny machines aren’t only a gimmick anymore, their scale is still small. But it could be a sign.

This trend is a good sign for Australia, which produces gold, as well as for South Africa and other countries.

But it’s a bad sign for paper money, with weak currencies like the Euro being more vulnerable. One of the outcomes of the recent turmoil in Europe is new highs for paper gold. Gold touched $1250 per ounce on May 14th – a new all-time record. It’s now stable at $1233. The correlation between the Euro’s weakness and the strength of gold is very strong.

The drops in the Euro triggered a rise in gold prices. A rise in the demand for gold could trigger a sell off in the Euro.

While their own currency plunges, European might turn to shining metal. Gold slowly becomes a true “safe haven” currency, like in old times.

Speaking of safe haven currencies, the yen lost its role this week with the resignation of the Japanese Prime Minister. The political uncertainty in Japan may be temporary, but at least for now, gold seems to take the yen’s place, alongside the dollar. The greenback won’t lose its status as the world’s reserve currency. The talks a few months ago were definitely too soon.

The dollar clings to its throne. But gold, physical gold is behind it.

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New On Forex Crunch: List of Forex Vendors

Posted: 02 Jun 2010 06:58 AM PDT

I’m happy to announce a new page here on Forex Crunch – a list of recommended forex vendors. There are currently only 3 vendors in the list, carefully handpicked by me. Each one deals with a different aspect of forex trading.

The reasons for including each one is described in the page. I prefer recommending only a handful of providers and not too many. Additional providers might be added in the future.

Note that the links there are affiliate links. This is also stated on the page of course.

Enough said – check out the forex vendors list.