Forex news for US trading on June 23, 2015:

  • Fed's Powell sees 50/50 chance of Fed hike in Sept
  • May US core durable goods orders +0.4% vs +0.5% expected
  • Fed's Powell: Economy is in a bit of a slowdown
  • Powell: Path of rates could be about 1 percentage point a year if economy continues to grow
  • June 2015 US Markit manufacturing PMI flash 53.4 vs 54.2 exp
  • June 2015 US Richmond Fed manufacturing index 6 vs 4 exp
  • Greek June IMF payment could be covered by SMP payments - MNI
  • Juncker to invite Tsipras for high level talks Wednesday
  • May 2015 US new home sales 0.546m vs 0.525m exp m/m
  • April 2015 FHFA house price index 0.3% vs 0.5% exp m/m
  • Talk of US oil inventory drawdown boosts prices
  • Gold down $9 to $1177
  • WTI crude up $0.76 to $61.17
  • S&P 500 up 1 point to 2123
  • US 10 year yields up 3.8 bps to 2.41%
  • AUD and USD lead, EUR and CHF lag

The US dollar was at the highs of the day as US traders arrived. It's not so much about a 'buy the rumor, sell the fact' trade in Greece as it is about the carry trade. Some stability (or hopes for stability) in the Eurozone brought fresh selling in euros as a funding currency. The momentum quickly accelerated as the US dollar finally breathed a sign of relief. USD gains peaked after the comments from Powell but ran out of momentum afterwards in 20-40 pip retracement.

Adding to the USD momentum was cable selling as it fell for the second day after an extended rally. The dollar retraced some of its gains in NY afternoon trading on most fronts but cable remained near the lows of the day. The theme in the pound has been 5-10 day streaks of gains/losses and we're right back to the downside.

USD/JPY rallied to 124.19 on Powell's comments then made a second run after new home sales but was unable to take out the earlier high and some selling pushed the pair down to 123.65, within a dozen pips of the European lows. But a fresh bid appeared later as stock found buyers and it crept up to 124.00 again.

Australian dollar trading was drama-filled. A drop to 0.7680 after Powell was quickly reversed as commodity prices rallied. That sent AUD all the way back to 0.7749 and to the top of the FX heap for the day. Bids at 0.7750 and above capped the move and we've been consolidating in the 0.7720 to 0.7735 range for the past few hours.

USD/CAD made a quick run to 1.2380 but oil caught a bid on tighter supply talk (the API report is due at 4:30 pm ET) and USD/CAD fell back to 1.2320. Last at 1.2335.