Forex news for US trading on Sept 23, 2015:

  • Forecasts show lower increase in inflation says Draghi
  • Draghi: If needed, QE will be extended beyond Sept 2016
  • Markit US manufacturing PMI 53.0 vs 52.8 expected
  • Canada July retail sales +0.5% vs +0.7% m/m expected
  • Bank of England's Broadbent: Low wage jobs weighing on productivity and wages
  • ECB's Weidmann: Asset purchases should only be used in an emergency
  • South African Reserve Bank holds rates at 6.00%
  • Xi Jinping: China accounts for 30% of world economic growth
  • Fed's Lockhart: Voted to hold rates as a cautionary approach
  • ECB's Praet says can alter QE
  • EIA crude oil inventories -1925K vs -1250K expected
  • Gold up $6 to $1130
  • S&P 500 down 4 points to 1938
  • WTI crude down $1.65 to $44.71
  • EUR leads, AUD lags

A few themes persisted and a few reversed on Tuesday. Two that continued were cable and Aussie weakness.

AUD/USD no doubt suffered in part due to the softer China PMI. It tumbled a half-cent in Asian trading on the headlines but it then staged a near-total recovery. But commodities began to selloff shortly after the oil inventory data and that sank the pair to 0.7000 where it found a bit of support in a 16 pip bounce. A final leg of selling took it to 0.6990 and it looks to close near the lows.

GBP/USD broke the Sept 15 low of 1.1326 in European trading. It then briefly bounced before US traders stepped in and sold in size in a quick move down to 1.5227 and later to 1.5220. That's four days in a row of declines.

USD/CAD traders were whipsawed. The pair rose early but oil inventory data first led to a short-lived crude rally and USD/CAD declined to 1.3250. Oil soon reversed and so did this pair and that eventually led to a run on stops above 1.3350 to a new 11-year high at 1.3357.

USD/JPY attempted to rally on a bounce in stock markets. That meant a 30 pip quick climb to 120.54 but a turn in sentiment quickly unwound the move and the pair fell to a US low of 120.05. The big figure held and we've bounced to 120.25.

Finally, the euro was in focus throughout the session. It had been moving in lockstep with GBP but they diverged today in a big way. There was talk about dovish rhetoric from Draghi but he largely repeated the lines from the ECB statement and that led to a relief rally. A later US rally sapped it but EUR/USD asserted itself late and rose to 1.1208, just above the 200-day moving average but failing to break Tuesday's high.