Forex trading headlines from the European morning session 20 Dec
- UK GDPQ3 final read m/m +0.8% as exp/prev y/y +1.9% vs +1.5% prev
- UK current account Q3 GBP -20.721 bln vs -13.85 bln exp -13.0 bln prev
- UK PSNBR nov GBP +14.8 bln vs +7.4 bln prev
- S&P cuts EU supranational long-term rating to AA+ from AAA
- EU’s Rehn replies to ratings cut by saying EU should be judged on its own merits
- S&P affirms UK sov long-term rating at AAA
- BOJ’s Kuroda says Fed taper reflects steady US recovery. More from the presser here
- Japan PM Abe says Q3 2014 GDP will be key to second stage of sales tax hike
- Japan’s GPIF says it plans to buy “several hundred” bln JPY of JGBs from April
- ECB’s Weidmann says EZ deflation risk ” very limited”
- German GFK consumer sentiment Jan 7.6 vs 7.3 exp/prev
- German producer prices Nov m/m -0.1% as exp vs -0.2% prev
- Italian Oct retail sales m/m -0.1% vs -0.3% prev
- Italian industrial orders Oct nsa m/m -2.5% vs +1.1% exp
- French business climate Dec 100 vs 99 exp 98 prev
- Nikkei closes on session highs at 15,870.42
- Shanghai comp index closes down 2.02% at 2084.79
On a data-packed day we’ve had plenty of other considerations too as the headlines tell us.
The pound has had a mixed session on the compensating data with GBPUSD surviving an early attack on 1.6320 support only to rally to 1.6366 on the GDP improvement. With c/a data out at the same time it wasn’t long before we back down at 1.6335 and we’ve been 30-50 since.
EURUSD similarly survived a move on 1.3620 support and has since looked only wanted up to 1.3668 shrugging off an S&P ratings cut. EURGBP has edged higher to 0.8363 after holding 0.8330 support while EURJPY has looked in demand all session.
USDJPY finally broke up through 104.50 as the Nikkei closed on session highs but has failed to follow through despite triggering some stops as expected. Tight range since around 104.45
AUD, NZD and CAD all similarly in tight mode.
Roll on Xmas !