Forex trading headlines from the European morning session 15 April 2014
- Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kuroda: Told Abe Japan is moving towards 2% price target
- Japan’s Abe did not make request for BOJ to ease says Suga
- ECB’s Liikanen says deflation not base case scenario for ECB
- Spain to beta test stress tests
- Spain denies beta test stress tests
- Businesses ready to invest more now says BOE’s Broadbent
- March Swiss producer/import prices 0.0% vs 0.0% exp m/m
- March UK CPI 1.6% vs 1.6% exp y/y
- UK PPI input prices March m/m nsa -0.6% vs -0.2% exp
- February UK house prices 9.1% vs 7.4% exp y/y
- February euro zone trade balance 13.6bn vs 10.0bn exp
- German ZEW economic sentiment April 43.2 vs 45 exp
- German ZEW says there is no particular fear of euro strengthening further
- It’s hard to ignore the fundamentals when you’re a tech trader
- EU parliament approves Single Resolution Mechanism bill
German econ ministry says it expects 2014 GDP growth of +1.8%
Daily Ukraine flannel
- Russia’s Lavrov says Kiev’s offers of dialogue with separatists are a step in the right direction
- UN says it has received “many reports of vote rigging” in Crimea referendum
Even the blogging king Eamonn had to be awoken from a slumber this morning as the Europeans took over the trading terminals. Abe’s much heralded lunch meeting with the BOJ’s Kuroda would have garnered more interest if we had know where they had gone and what they had to eat. The headlines were less than exciting.
We didn’t really have to wait too long for some action as sterling traders decided they wanted to reposition themselves ahead of the UK inflation numbers, why is anyones guess but maybe some jitters from across the channel found their way to the desks in England. The pound was sold and the ripples were enough to have an effect across most pound pairs and even other yen crosses. The moves were fairly small in cable as it dropped from 1.6717 to 1.6685 but were more pronounced in GBP/JPY which fell just under 60 pips from 170.29 to 169.72. EUR/JPY and USD/JPY were carried mildly lower with by the force of it.
Just as the CPI numbers were hitting the screen someone with a an itchy trigger finger sold it down to 1.6661 but there was nothing in the release that warranted the move so we bounced instantly to 1.6715. We’re currently back in the overnight 1.6710/30 range.
EUR/USD wasn’t getting involved with the pound moves at first but it started to weigh and we broke 1.3800 by a few pips. Another itchy finger after the German Zew and euro zone trade data took us to 1.3790, but yet again the news wasn’t as bad and some were expecting. The headline Zew missed but with positive components, Trade data was actually quite good and underscores the slowly regaining recovery. We tried a move back above 1.38 but 1.3810 capped and we’re back to bouncing around a 20 pip range
Gold has been about the only other mover of note falling $6 in minutes to 1311 early on and is now down $23 to 1304. The wires note seeling related to yesterdays retail sales figures but the time lag make that a feeble reason.
It’s all ground to a halt again as we look West to the States for a decent round of data.
