Forex news for December 15, 2014:
- December 2014 US Empire state manufacturing index -3.58 vs 12.40 exp
- US November industrial production +1.3% vs +0.7% expected
- December 2014 US NAHB housing market index 57.0 vs 58.0 exp
- ECB’s Visco: Large scale bond buying is needed if risks to price stability in euro area are confirmed
- UAE oil minister does not see a reason for OPEC to meet so quickly
- Canada’s Talisman Energy in play as Repsol meets to approve takeover bid
- Canada’s Oliver pours cold water on taking dramatic steps to cool Canada’s housing market
- November 2014 Canadian existing home sales 0.0% vs 0.7% prior m/m
- Sydney hostage crisis: Police storm Lindt Cafe in Martin Place
- Moscow exchange says USD/RUB pair reached upper bound of 64.44
- Bill Gross says Fed to wait until inflation hits 2% before hiking
- S&P 500 down 13 points to 1989
- WTI crude down $2.60 to $55.22
- Gold down $29
- US 10-year yields up 3 bps to 2.11%
- JPY leads, CAD lags
The big news was the 9.25% fall in the Russia ruble. The big figures fell like dominoes as USD/RUB climbed to 64.23% — it’s never a good day when almost 10% of the value of the world’s largest country is wiped out.
Commodities remain curled up in a ball and crying with WTI crude down another 4.5% and the Canadian dollar following it lower despite some inbound M&A.
The Australian dollar held up a bit better but still made a marginal four-year low down to 0.8201. Gold joined in today on rumors of Russia’s central bank selling.
A quick wave of US dollar selling hit at one point and EUR/USD jumped up to 1.2478, quickly gaining 40 pips but it fell back over the reminder of the day.
The extremes came after the industrial production data led to a round of US dollar buying but it couldn’t climb above 119 in USD/JPY and embarked on a painful slide to 117.70 as risk trades cracked.
FX ticker
