Forex news and economic headlines 24 March 2016
News:
- UK's BBA says Brexit would have a negative impact on banks
- ECB Monthly Bulletin: Eurozone recovery is continuing but dampened by exterior problems
- BOJ's Kuroda says easing will continue only until 2% inflation is stable
- €7.3bn taken up in latest ECB TLTRO
- Dutch central bank starts to count the losses from ECB QE
- Russian key interest rates will be cut when inflation and its risks come down
- Option expiries 10am NY cut today 24 March
- Don't forget: UK and European clocks move forward this week-end
- Nikkei 225 closes down -0.64% at 16,892.33
Data:
- February 2016 UK retail sales -0.4% vs -0.7% exp m/m
- Germany import price index Feb mm -0.6% vs -0.2% exp
- Germany GFK consumer confidence April 9.4 vs 9.5 exp
- February 2016 UK mortgage approvals 45,892 vs 46,916 prior
- UK CBI March retailing reported sales 7 vs 10 exp
- Italy industrial orders Jan mm +0.7% vs -2.8% prev
- January 2016 Italian retail sales 0.0% vs -0.1% prior m/m SA
It's been a tale of two halves for the pound this morning. Early pressure led by EURGBP demand then turned around as failure to breach a couple of key levels on that pair and cable gave traders good reason to square up some short positions ahead of Easter.
Early USD demand combined with euro supported by lower equity markets saw EURGBP hold onto 0.7920 and rally to 0.7947 just shy of good sell interest at 0.7950 that I had highlighted. GBPUSD drifted into 1.4070 then had one quick test of good support/demand around 1.4050.
UK retail sales data was a little better than expected but had little impact initially and the pound continued to crawl around until someone pulled the trigger and we marched up to 1.4147 and down to 0.7896. GBP pairs elsewhere have felt the love too.
EURUSD has been pinned around 1.1160 largely with a cluster of 1.1150-60 option expiries casting a shadow while USDJPY ran up to test 113.00 only to run into more offers and retreat.
USDCAD has been pulled around by oil but mostly underpinned while USDCHF had a dip below decent support 0.9750 before running into fresh bids. EURCHF remains supported but failing to extend gains to any real extent.
AUD and NZDUSD have both been kept on the back foot as commodity prices remain under pressure.
US durable goods at 12.30 the data risk event but this is all about flows right now and the long w-e/month-end in focus.
