Forex trading headlines for Monday 5th May 2014
- Ireland’s Noonan says political instability a concern
- US stocks crunched at the open
- April US Markit services PMI final 55.0 vs 54.5 exp
- April US ISM non manufacturing PMI 55.2 vs 54.1 exp
- Here’s what the movers and shakers of the ISM report had to say
- Dijsselbloem sees divided views over new Greek debt relief
- Euro bloc has won back a good amount of confidence says Merkel
- ECB’s Mersch says FTT should not have unintended side effects
- Yves Mersch won’t be surprised by surprises in ECB bank review
- Mersch says ECB doesn’t see deflationary risk over the medium term
- Brent crude down despite Ukraine strife and Libya oil field shutdowns
- US treasury estimates that Russia may lose $100bn in investments this year
- Sell US housing says Doubleline’s Gundlach
- Drop in real estate loans adds to softer US housing picture
- US Justice department gearing up to smack some bank botty
- 20 separatists killed in Ukraine and many civilians wounded
- Eurogroup made progress on ESM direct recaps says Dijsselbloem
- Germany’s Schaeuble says one step at a time for FTT
- Sapin says strong Euro plays a role in low inflation rate
The US session looked like it had the fireworks prepped for another show as stock futures pointed to sizable losses with bond yields already on the ropes. Stocks opened and slumped immediately with the S&P falling to 1866.77. The Dow and Nasdaq followed suit. We then got the turnaround as the normally uninspiring services PMI beat expectations (but with a weak employment index) and then the ISM Non manufacturing PMI trounced estimates (but with a weak employment index), and suddenly we were back to flat and even into the green in stocks and bonds yields . US 10’s went from testing support at 2.56% to over 2.61%. Stocks took back the losses but couldn’t gain much more and finish slightly up.
That was where the action was as FX took a day off with most pairs stuck in tight ranges. USD/JPY looked like it wanted to push lower from the get go but the data put a pin in that idea. Still, we could only muster a measly 26 pip run up from the start of the session at 101.89 and finish at 102.12.
Cable and the euro were both still enjoying the long weekend and 20 pips was the ball park. 1.6853/73 did you in the pound and 1.3872/86 did you in the euro.
Oil fell even with supply disruptions in Libya and increasing violence in in Ukraine. Brent has lost about a buck as of writing and trades at 107.63 from a high of 108.92
It’s got to be a worry when we get two days of solid US data yet the dollar can’t rally. Maybe will see better activity when traders return en masse tomorrow but it’s an ominous sign.
Eamonn is in the hot seat now so I’ll hand you over to his most capable hands and I’ll be back in my normal slot tomorrow.
