Forex news from the European morning session 17 December 2014
News:
- Russian finance ministry intervention sends USDRUB tumbling again
- Russian fin min says it’s ready to sell USD 7bln worth of FX
- Russian central bank investigating possible manipulation in FX market
- Russia’s Medvedev says order must be brought to Russian FX market
- ECB’s Nouy says Eurozone exposure to Russia is containable
- Cunliffe sees disinflationary pressure in UK coming from overseas
- BOE MPC voting unchanged on rates and QE
- BOE MPC Minutes: Stronger wage growth needed before rate hike
- Germany look to lower borrowing by €15.5bn in 2015
- The Old Lady is still stuck between a rock and a hard place
Data:
- November 2014 UK Labour market report claimant count -26.9k vs -20.0k exp
- November 2014 eurozone HICP final 0.3% vs 0.3% exp y/y
- Q3 2014 eurozone labour costs 1.3% vs 1.2% prior
- December 2014 Swiss ZEW investor sentiment -4.9 vs -7.6 prior
- Japan machine tool orders Nov flash yy 36.6 as previous
- Nikkei 225 closes up +0.38% at 16819.73
- Shanghai Composite Index closes up 1.3% at 3061.02
Russia has dominated the show once again as the markets remain wary of getting over-exposed ahead of the FOMC later.
USDJPY caught a bid early on as relative stability came to the rouble and we saw new o/n highs of 117.35 before intervention by the Russian fin ministry sent USDRUB tumbling to 62.42 from 70.00 earlier and USDJPY was testing 117.00 again. But it was short lived and we’ve had another look at the 117.50 offers before retreating.
GBPUSD and EURUSD had early wobbles to 1.5677 and 1.2450 but have since stabilised with GBPUSD finding a little support after UK jobs/wages data but unable to hold gains above 1.5720.USDCHF enjoyed a steady run from 0.9610 to 0.9650 but then ran into offers and backed off
AUDUSD had an early dip on the USD demand and posted fresh o/n lows 0f 0.8140 before recovering its poise to 0.8191 before retreating ahead of 0.8200 offers. USDCAD has had a more quiet morning and drifted off to 1.1638 having looked comfortable above 1.1650 to begin with. NZDUSD has followed AUDUSD down and up and then down again between 0.7716 to 0.7746 then 0.7735
If yesterday’s session was crazy today’s has been far more subdued by comparison but it’s still painfully thin as we wait for the FOMC later, and there’s the not insignificant US CPI to come before that.
