EUR/USD sits at 1.2685, hardly changed from North American close Thursday around 1.2695, Asia seeing trading range of 1.2645-1.2701.
So far the Middle Eastern buy orders we mentioned yesterday, lined up at 1.2630/60, have absorbed the renewed selling pressure. We continue to see Swiss National Bank selling above 1.2700, with the central bank seen active seller up in the 1.2750/65 zone yesterday.
European stocks set to open a fair bit lower; DAX 30 down around 0.8%, FTSE 100 and CAC 40 around 0.7%.
Euro zone data due today:
06:45 GMT: French industrial production for July expected +0.7% m/m, +5.0% y/y. Manufacturing production expected +0.7% m/m, +4.4% y/y
08:00 GMT: Italian industrial production for July expected +0.5% m/m, +5.7% y/y wda, +7.0% y/y nsa
09:00 GMT: Italian Q2 GDP (final) expected +0.4% q/q, +1.1% y/y.
