USD/RUB retreats from highs, back near 56.70

The Russian Ruble is trading on the defensive on Wednesday, lifting USD/RUB to the area of daily highs in the 56.70/80 band.

USD/RUB focus on oil

The pair is up for the first time after three consecutive sessions with losses, navigating the upper 56.00s after finding quite decent support in the 56.00 neighbourhood seen last week (May 25).

The renewed and strong selling bias in crude oil prices has been weighing on RUB since early trade today, as the barrel of the European reference Brent crude is down more than 2% to the boundaries of the $51.00 mark.

In the data space, Russian manufacturing PMI is next on tap tomorrow followed by the usual report on FX reserves held by the CBR. In the US, the ADP report, the ISM Manufacturing and May’s Non-farm Payrolls will be the salient events in the second half of the week.

USD/RUB levels to watch

At the moment the pair is up 0.52% at 56.84 and a surpass of 57.33 (high May 29) would aim for 58.12 (high May 18) and finally 59.07 (high May 5). On the other hand, the next support lines up at 56.15 (low May 30) followed by 56.00 (low May 25) and then 55.67 (2017 low Apr.25).