Forex news for US trading June 12, 2015:
- June 2015 US Michigan consumer sentiment flash 94.6 vs 91.5 exp
- May 2015 US PPI final demand 0.5% vs 0.4% exp m/m
- Greece ready to submit counter proposals
- Senior Eurozone officials discussed 'Plan B' of a Greek default - officials
- Greece denies reports that Greek exit scenarios had been discussed by EU
- Greek government says pension and wage cuts will not be accepted
- EU spokesman says there are still differences on Greek proposal that need to be bridged
- EU's Juncker says Greek solution is necessary in coming days
- UK & BOE outlooks downgraded to AAA negative from AAA stable by S&P
- ECB's Costa: Long period of low rates may pose a risk for financial stability
- Baker Hughes US rig count 859 vs 868 prior
- Gold down $1 to $1181
- WTI crude down $0.73 to $60.05
- US 10-year yields up 1.2 bps to 2.39%
- German 10-yaer yields down 5 bps to 0.83%
- Spain 10-year yields up 12 bps to 2.25%
- S&P 500 down 15 points to 2094
- CHF leads, NZD lags
US trading started out with a series of negative comments on Greece. EUR/USD had fallen to 1.1150 earlier in Europe and had bounced to 1.1190 but it was tenuous with tension clearly high in Athens. The mood lightened on reports that Greece would submit counterproposals this weekend. It will seemingly come down to pensions. Greece has said it won't budge and creditors want concessions. It could all make for a very interesting open on Friday but euro traders weren't showing any signs of nerves. Talk of the proposal sent the pair to 1.1297. Last at 1.1260.
The risk trade was less optimistic. US stocks were under constant pressure and that sent USD/JPY down to 123.13 from 123.75 at the start of US trading. Even the upbeat U Mich survey could only stem the selling for minutes. The latter part of the week was spent within the range of the Kuroda rout but the inability to retrace it is a bit of a worry. It's up to the Fed now.
What's to say about cable? It was the top performer this week in a messy week of whipsaws. The latest one came on some broad US dollar selling before London headed to the pub. Buy stops above 1.5525 rippled all the way to 1.5597. An hour later, the UK outlook was downgraded and that sparked a retracement to 1.5532. But not even that could derail the perky pound and we finish at 1.5566.
There wasn't much to say about the loonie as it traded in a narrow range. The early part of the week saw some big declines and the past two days included some small bounces. Given the drop in oil, you'd expect more so that's a win for the USD/CAD bears (but that's a small camp).
AUD/USD has been a disappointment since the jobs report. Plenty of ebb and flow since a rebound from 0.7690 in Europe to 0.7750 but finished at 0.7730.
