Forex news from the European trading session 31 October 2014
News:
- BOJ press conference: Kuroda says easing expanded to ensure price target is reached
- Kuroda says BOJ easing will continue as long as needed
- Kuroda says he doesn’t see the need to act further now
- Kuroda says its for the govt to decide on sales tax hikes
- Kuroda: Weakening yen has been an overall plus for Japan’s economy
- Kuroda: Repeats that monetary policy not aimed at currencies
- Japan’s Suga says govt and BOJ will co-ordinate on future policy
- Japan’s Amari says expansion of QQE aimed at preventing risks of damaging positive economic cycle
- Kuroda says various options are available for adjusting policy further
- Japan’s Aso says he highly welcomes the BOJ’s decision today
- BOJ to buy JPY 8-10trln of JGBs per month in principle
- GPIF changes confirmed by govt source
- New GPIF allocations now officially confirmed
- ECB’s Nowotny says ” should never say never” to QE
- ECB’s Visco says they cannot ignore concrete risk of Eurozone deflation
- Italy’s Padoan says markets have welcomed the 2015 budget plans
- US Fed’s Williams says inflation-targetting helps keep inflation low and stable
- Central bank of Russia raises key interest rate to 9.5%
- Yatseniuk says Ukraine will guarantee transit of gas to Europe
Data:
- Eurozone CPI flash yy +0.4% vs +0.4% exp
- Eurozone unemployment rate Sept 11.5% as exp
- German retail sales Sept mm -3.2% vs -0.9% expected
- Italian CPI flash Oct +0.1% vs -0.2% exp
- Italian Sept unemployment rate 12.6% vs 12.4% exp
- French Sept producer prices mm +0.5% vs -0.1% exp
- Spanish current account balance August EUR +1.29bln vs +1.4bln prev
- Nikkei closes up +4.83% at 16413.76
- Japanese housing starts Sept yy -14.3% vs -17.2% exp
It’s all been about the yen after the surprise BOJ action had markets on the run and we saw a near 5% rise in the Nikkei and 200 pips on USDJPY with all yen pairs roaring higher
High USDJPY so far 111.89 ahead of more offers into 112.00 but the reported barrier at 111.50 was easily breached and it’s been a fairly steady trawl higher from 110.00 after the news hit the screens. EURJPY has posted 140.72 from 136.67 lows and GBPJPY 179.01 from 174.66 while AUDJPY has posted 98.58 from 96.33 lows driving AUDUSD back up from 0.8785 to 0.8840.
Elsewhere other ccys have obviously been caught in the yen pair cross plays which has kept demand into other core pairs with EURUSD bouncing from early lows of 1.2540 to look at 1.2600 again and GBPUSD also had a dip to 1.5960 on early doors EURGBP month-end buying but both moves came to nothing and GBPUSD has since posted 1.6012 with EURGBP falling to 0.7850 support from 0.7874
USDCAD has been well behaved in the cross fire trading 1.1180-1.1220 range while NZDUSD found carry-trade demand like AUDUSD and has risen from a base at 0.7850 to 0.7881 with NZDJPY up to 88.04 from 85.45
A nutty session and we can expect more fun n games before the week-end finally arrives.
