USD/CHF gains traction, climbs to 1.0200 area

• 10-year US T-bond yield posts small gains on Monday.
• US Dollar Index stays calm near 98.
• Coming up: Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) Price Index from the U.S.

After advancing to its highest level since early January of 2017 at 1.0237 last Friday, the USD/CHF pair has gone into a consolidation phase and is struggling to determine its next short-term direction. At the moment, the pair, which fell to a session low of 1.0185, is trading at 1.0200, gaining 0.05% on a daily basis.

The next catalyst for the pair could be the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) Price Index that will be published by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis at 12:30 GMT. Markets expect the core PCE Price Index to edge down to 1.7% on a yearly basis in March. However, the fact that both February and March figures will be published at the same time because of the delays caused by the government shutdown earlier this year could cause markets to show mixed reactions.

Despite the drop witnessed on Friday, the US Dollar Index closed the week at its highest level in nearly 6 months and is now waiting for the inflation data around the 98 mark.

Previewing the data, "we expect a 0.4% m/m increase in services spending to be the main driver of the March rebound, with a rise in spending on both durables and nondurables also helping on the headline. Moreover, we forecast income to rise 0.4% m/m, a stronger pace than in both Jan and Feb," TD Securities analysts said.

Meanwhile, the 10-year US T-bond yield is posting small gains on Monday, pointing out to a neutral market sentiment that makes it difficult for the CHF to find demand as a safe-haven.

Technical levels to consider