Forex news for US trading on August 18, 2015:
- US housing starts 1206K vs 1180K expected
- Building permits 1119K vs 1228K expected
- New Zealand Fonterra dairy prices +14.8 vs -9.3% prior
- Wal Mart cuts guidance as strong US dollar hurts profits
- Atlanta Fed GDPNow Q3 tracking model jumps to 1.3% from 0.7%
- ECB lowers Greek ELA, in line with Greek central bank request
- Fitch affirms Canada at AAA with a stable outlook
- Fitch upgrades Greece to CCC
- Gundlach says Fed hike is 'a bad idea'
- Gold flat at $1117
- Turkish lira posts record lows v USD after central bank leaves interest rates on hold
- Copper closes at fresh six-year low
- WTI crude up 54-cents to $42.41
- S&P 500 down 7 points to 2095
- GBP leads, AUD lags
Was it a solid housing starts report on flows? I lean towards the latter to explain the steady US dollar bid throughout North American trading.
EUR/USD started at 1.1064 after finding bids in the 1.1055 range earlier but shortly after the housing data it fell and ran stops below 1.1050 down to 1.1017. Bids there were tested three times but held as a the day wound down in a narrow range. last at 1.1033.
USD/JPY rose to 120.47 from 124.20 in a relatively quick move but it was pure consolidation from there. Last at 124.37.
The big story in Europe was the higher reading in the UK inflation report. That sent the pound to multi-week highs but even there, the US dollar managed to claw back. Cable slowly slipped to 1.5664 from 1.5710.
AUD/USD sagged on the RBA minutes and rout in Chinese stocks (and commodities). It attempted a rally early but was capped at 0.7360 and then fell shortly after US traders came, hitting 0.7320 before a rebound to 0.7343 in slow trading.
The one currency to buck the US trend was CAD. USD/CAD was pulled down by a 2% rally in oil prices. The selling was slow and steady down to 1.3052. There has been repeated talk for days about bids at 1.3050 with more at 1.3000/10.
There was plenty of chatter about a stronger kiwi milk auction and that came to fruition, sending the pair to 0.6599 from 0.6575 -- not much to get excited about but it was really the only tradeable headline later in the day.
