Singapore dollar loses ground

The greenback has been strengthening.

IG Markets Singapore noted:

The Singapore dollar has lost a little ground to the greenback over the weekend after a period of USD strengthening.

Global markets are notching up new highs with former reads out of its two biggest economies, while positive noises are coming out of the eurozone.

Much of the feel-good feeling is coming from the US where generally better-than-expected corporate earnings are being released from major blue chips.

This has helped push the greenback slightly higher, leaving it sitting at $1.236 against the local currency this morning.

The week ahead is an important one for risk currencies with PMI data due out of the eurozone, the Fed's first policy meeting of the year and culminating in non-farm payrolls Friday.

However, the general bullishness in the marketplace hasn't translated into bigger bets for Asian currencies as yet.

OCBC Treasury Research meanwhile reported:

The better than expected industrial production numbers on Friday failed to provide any lift for the SGD and the SGD NEER remains laden this morning at around +0.52% above its perceived parity (1.2410).

Given current market levels, expect the extreme strong end of the NEER fluctuation band at around 1.2225 while the top end of the USD-SGD may materialize around 1.2380 intra-day.