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· The dollar pulled ahead from a nine-day low on Thursday, largely helped by the pound snapping back after a sharp rally made on Brexit relief.

The dollar index, a gauge of the currency’s strength against six major counterparts, was up 0.1 percent at 96.633. It shed 0.4 percent overnight, at one point brushing a nine-day trough of 96.385.

Sterling was down 0.65 percent at $1.3254 after climbing to $1.3380 the previous day, its strongest since June 2018.

· “The pound is experiencing a bit of a recoil after rising so steeply in the previous session,” said Shin Kadota, senior strategist at Barclays in Tokyo.

“The market wants to take a look at how the vote on delaying the Brexit departure pans out and get an idea on how long the postponement would be, and sellers have emerged amid this pause.”

· British lawmakers are widely expected to vote on Thursday to delay Britain’s departure from the EU, currently scheduled for March 29.

· “The pound has already made a lot of ground, and since its gains are mostly generated by expectations rather than fundamentals, its current rally looks to have run its course,” said Junichi Ishikawa, senior FX strategist at IG Securities in Tokyo.

The dollar was 0.35 percent higher at 111.53 yen after losing 0.2 percent the previous day.

The euro was a shade lower at $1.1320 after advancing 0.3 percent overnight.

· EUR/USD trades near 1.1325 during early Thursday.

The pair recently reversed from a downward sloping resistance-line stretched since February 28, also forming a part of the short-term symmetrical triangle.

The pullback from formation resistance signal brighter chances of the pair’s further weakness towards 1.1310 and then to 1.1300.

However, pattern support, at 1.1280, could confine pair’s additional declines, if not then 1.1250 and 1.1220 can become sellers’ favorites.

On the contrary, pair’s ability to conquer 1.1335 resistance-line can trigger its recovery to 1.1355 and 1.1380 numbers to the north.

Also, pair’s sustained advances past-1.1380 might not hesitate flashing 1.1400 and 1.1425 on the chart.

· USD/JPY is currently flirting with key resistance at 111.46, having picked up a strong bid near 111.20 an hour ago.

The 26 pip rise has invalidated the bearish view put forward by the rising channel breakdown confirmed yesterday.

Should the pair find acceptance above 111.46, then a sideways channel breakout would be confirmed. That would open the doors to resistance at 111.85-112.00.

The 10-year treasury yield continues to recover from over three-month lows below 2.6 percent hit earlier this week. Therefore, the probability of the pair finding acceptance above 111.46 is high.

It is worth noting that the bounce from 111.00 has established that psychological support as the level to beat for the bears.

· GBP, CHF Eyeing Brexit Vote - USD Waiting for New Home Sales

Sterling will be biting its proverbial nails today as the House of Commons gears up for a third major Brexit-related vote. After May’s plan was defeated on Tuesday, another vote was held on whether the UK would leave the EU without a deal. It was subsequently voted down. Now, UK lawmakers are gathering for a vote on extending the March 29 deadline. If it passes, will the EU agree, and much will it cost…for both sides?

EU officials stated that if an extension was granted, it could come with a 39 billion GBP price tag. Now, the cost for the EU is less pecuniary than it is political. If European officials are too lenient, it could incentivize Eurosceptic parties around Europe to follow the UK and vote to leave. Conversely, if they are too harsh and rigid, it could embolden parties around Europe that accuse Brussels of being a technocratic leviathan.

With the upcoming European Parliamentary elections in May, the EU has to do what it can to preserve what positive views there are of Brussels in order to ensure pro-European lawmakers are voted in and crowd out their Eurosceptic counterparts. The fear of geopolitically-based market disturbance in Europe has swelled with ECB President Mario Draghi citing it as a growing concern in the last policy meeting.

If the outcome of the Brexit vote results in a demand for haven assets, the US Dollar, Japanese Yen and Swiss Franc (CHF) may gain. The latter may outperform its other anti-risk colleagues due to its geographical proximity to the European-based event risk. This might explain why CHF was strengthening almost throughout the entire APAC trading hours.

The US Dollar will be focusing on local economic data. Month-on-month new home sales are expected to rise 0.30 percent after a previous rise of 3.70. If more people purchase homes, the subsequent spending in furniture and various other house-related expenditures multiplied across the population creates an aggregate spending effect that pushes up inflation. This in turn could influence Fed monetary policy and send the US Dollar higher.

· Another vote Thursday

MPs will now vote again Thursday evening on whether to seek an extension to Article 50 (which oversees the departure process) thus extending the departure date beyond March 29. The EU would have to agree to this and the U.K. would have to give a good reason for requesting the delay.

Officials in Brussels are showing increasing signs of exasperation with the U.K. over its chaotic and confusing position on Brexit, warning that it will not renegotiate the deal on offer. Its chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said ahead of Wednesday’s vote that only the U.K. can break the impasse.

Paul Dales, the chief U.K. economist at Capital Economics, said investors had learnt over the past two years to not rule anything out.

“It’s possible that an amendment to tomorrow (Thursday) night’s vote will provide a clearer path to Brexit by allowing Parliament to vote on different Brexit options,” he said in a research note.

“Equally, the current political instability means at some point the prime minister could resign and/or Labour tries to force a general election.”

· NAB analysts have revised their global growth forecasts lower for 2019 to a sub-trend 3.4%, aided by the recent negative trends.

“Financial markets have continued to recover, albeit still remaining below previous peaks, however this is on the back of more dovish monetary policy expectations, rather than underlying economic strength.”

“Economic trends have generally softened – growth in major advanced and emerging market economies slowed in Q4, and more timely indicators (such as PMI surveys and our leading indicator) point to further slowing. This is particularly the case in manufacturing, which is more trade exposed than services.”

“However this slowdown goes beyond global trade concerns, with weak domestic demand in a range of countries – particularly private consumption and business investment in non-US advanced economies. This broad based deterioration suggests that the any economic benefits derived from a cooling in US-China trade tensions should not be overstated.”

“Given the recent negative trends, we have revised our growth forecasts lower for 2019 to a sub-trend 3.4%. A weaker profile for the Euro-zone, Japan and Latin America were the main contributors to this downward revision. Our leading indicator implies further weakness through to the middle of 2019, and suggests the risk to our forecasts is on the downside. That said, we expect growth to stabilise into 2020, in part due to the dovish turn in policy settings.

· Gerard Burg, senior economist at NAB, suggests that they are expecting Chinese economic growth to continue to ease this year as manufacturing conditions remain weak, on both domestic and export demand.

“China’s annual growth target (along with other economic targets) was announced at the National People’s Congress in March. As expected, the target is a range from 6% to 6.5%. Our outlook for China remains unchanged – we see growth at 6.25% in 2019 before slowing to 6.0% in 2020. Although trade tensions with the United States may soon be resolved, the global trade environment has continued to weaken, which could present some downside risk to this forecast.”

· U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was in no rush to complete a trade pact with China and insisted that any deal include protection for intellectual property, a major sticking point between the two sides during months of negotiations.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had been expected to hold a summit at the president’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida later this month, but no date has been set for a meeting and no in-person talks between their trade teams have been held in more than two weeks.

China has not made any public comment confirming Xi is considering going to meet Trump in Florida or elsewhere.

· Growth in China’s industrial output fell to a 17-year low in the first two months of the year, pointing to further weakness in the world’s second-biggest economy that is likely to trigger more support measures from Beijing.

But a mixed bag of major data on Thursday also showed property investment is picking up, while overall retail sales were sluggish but steady, suggesting the economy is not in the midst of a sharper slowdown at present.

China is ramping up assistance for the economy as 2019 growth looks set to plumb 29-year lows, but support measures are taking time to kick in. Most analysts believe activity may not convincingly stabilize until the middle of the year.

· Oil prices rose on Thursday, with Brent crude hitting its highest since November 2018 amid OPEC-led supply cuts and U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and Iran, while Chinese demand remained strong despite an economic slowdown.

An unexpected dip in U.S. crude oil inventories and production also supported prices, traders said.

Brent crude oil futures marked a 2019-peak of $67.84 per barrel on Thursday, and were still at $67.78 per barrel at 0755 GMT, up 23 cents, or 0.3 percent from their last close.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $58.42 per barrel, up 16 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last settlement, and also close to a November-2018 high of $58.48 per barrel reached the previous day.

· WTI Technical Analysis: Ichimoku Cloud is bullish, double tops broken, eyes on $60.00bbls