USD/RUB keeps lows near 62.20 ahead of data

The Russian currency is posting small gains vs. its American peer on Wednesday, with USD/RUB hovering over the 62.25/20 band.

USD/RUB focus on US data, oil

The pair is trading in a very tight range today, retracing part of yesterday’s advance although still navigating the area of 2016 lows in the 62.20/61.80 band.

The renewed selling bias around the dollar keeps weighing on the pair along with a persistent leg lower in crude oil prices. In fact, the barrel of Brent crude is losing more than 1% and is putting the critical $50.00 mark to the test.

In the US data space, Services PMI gauged by Markit, New Home Sales, Goods Trade Balance and the weekly report on crude oil inventories by the DoE are all due later in the NA session. In Russia, FX Reserves held by the CBR are only due tomorrow.

Adding to RUB upside momentum, speculative net shorts have been drastically reduced to around 650 contracts during the week ended on October 18, taking net longs to record highs around 32K contracts according to the latest CFTC report.

USD/RUB levels to watch

At the moment the pair is losing 0.06% at 62.23 and a break below 61.85 (2016 low Oct.10) would expose 60.70 (low Oct.9 2015) and then 48.79 (low May 13 2015). On the flip side, the next up barrier lines up at 62.55 (20-day sma) followed by 63.49 (high Oct.13) and finally 63.80 (55-day sma).