USD/CHF lower amid Syria concerns

US dollar edged lower against the Swiss franc on Tuesday, but still remained supported as a safe haven, after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Syria will be held liable for the usage of chemical weapons.

USD/CHF fell to a session low at 0.9182 at 8:00 GMT, also the pairs lowest point since August 21st, after which consolidation followed at 0.9217. Support was likely to be found at August 21st low, 0.9163, while resistance was to be met at August 22nd high, 0.9290.

The Swiss franc managed to advance against 15 of its 16 major counterparts today, retreating only against the yen. Alongside Japanese currency, the franc is usually bought by investors in times of rising economic or political uncertainty.

“The prevailing emerging-market jitters are exacerbated by talk of possible U.S. strikes on Syria,” Alvin Tan, a director of foreign-exchange strategies at Societe Generale SA in London, wrote in a note to clients, cited by Bloomberg. “The yen and the franc have gained, as per the typical playbook.”

Meanwhile, global markets were still on edge, after US Secretary of State John Kerry said that President Barack Obama will hold Syrian government accountable for the “moral obscenity” of using chemical weapons.

At the same time, the lack of clarity over when the Federal Reserve Bank will begin tapering its stimulus program continued, after on Monday it became clear that durable goods orders in the United States dropped by 7.3% to 226.3 billion USD in July, while the median estimate pointed a lesser decrease, by 4.0%, marking the largest decline since August 2012.

Elsewhere, the Swiss franc was higher against the euro, as EUR/CHF cross dropped by 0.34% to trade at 1.2301 at 10:23 GMT. GBP/CHF pair was losing even more on a daily basis, down by 0.60% to trade at 1.4295 at 10:24 GMT.