Swiss Franc Makes New Highs

What might have looked like a boring week for forex markets found Swiss franc trade to multi-year highs against the US dollar; USD/CHF briefly traded down to 0.90 - a level that's held since June 2021. This comes at a rough time for pretty much any major currency called dollar as USD, AUD, and CAD all traded either unchanged or negative on the week. Will European strength continue at the expense of the dollars?

Performance of individual currencies USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, CHF, CAD, and AUD in all their pair combinations against each other is measured and weighted equally when deriving the week-over-week net change found below; currencies are then ranked on their overall percentage net change.

Trend followers might trade in the direction of recent strength or weakness, while contrarians could trade against the trend, For example, trend followers tend to buy the strongest currency, and contrarians tend to sell it.

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1. Swiss Franc - CHF (+0.8%)

Last week's ranking: #5 (-0.1%)

You may not have noticed, but Swiss franc is putting together a little bit of a run. USD/CHF has now fallen near 0.90 - the low in the major forex pair going back to Summer 2021. Bullish weeks for US dollars seem to affect the franc less than others, while bearish weeks in USD have been reflecting especially good times for CHF.

2. Japanese Yen - JPY (+0.3%)

Last week's ranking: #7 (-1.1%)

Japanese yen was able to muster up a +0.3% bounce back after finishing last in the prior week's rankings down -1.1%. While it may not seem like much, more fear at the expense of the US could help yen get closer to historical averages against USD; for the time being, however, JPY is gonna need more than +0.3% to gain prominence.

3. British Pound - GBP (+0.3%)

Last week's ranking: #2 (+0.6%)

Under the radar, British pounds have put together quite the comeback in recent months. Rarely exhibiting large rallies in a given day, GBP/USD has fought all the way back to 1.25 after trading below 1.05 briefly in Fall 2022. A couple more weeks in the top three for GBP could go a long way against its major competitors.

4. Canadian Dollar - CAD (0.0%)

Last week's ranking: #1 (+0.9%)

For a second early in the week, it looked like USD/CAD might break down to 1.32; however, Canadian dollars gave back ground to conclude the week mostly unchanged against other major currencies. While a week of 'unch' trading doesn't hurt, it would've been nice to see continued strength for the CAD bulls out there.

5. Euro - EUR (-0.1%)

Last week's ranking: #4 (0.0%)

Euro seems wholly content to trade sideways after bouncing back hard from last year's lows to start 2023. EUR/USD seems glued to the 1.10 level; it looks like some significant news out of the US or Eurozone is required to shake the forex pair one way or the other.

6. US Dollar - USD (-0.5%)

Last week's ranking: #3 (0.0%)

US dollars cannot seem to hold onto sideways price action let alone bullish sentiment. Coming employment and inflation data from the US should set the course forward for the major currency as it continues to witness a tough 2023.

7. Australian Dollar - AUD (-0.9%)

Last week's ranking: #6 (-0.3%)

This makes it three weeks in a row for Australian dollar trading negative against its major forex pair counterparts. Aussie dollar rallies quite hard to start the week, but AUD then trended lower in the wake of a more-dovish-than-hoped-for central bank meeting.