Forex news for November 24, 2014:
- ECB’s Coeure wants to have asset buying discussion next week
- November 2014 US Markit services PMI flash 56.3 vs 56.8 exp
- Weidmann sees a high legal hurdle for ECB government bond buying
- November 2014 Belgium business confidence index -6.1 vs -6.9 exp
- Dallas Fed manufacturing index 10.5 vs 9.0 exp
- Chicago Fed national activity index 0.14 vs 0.47 prior
- BOE’s Haldane: UK economic headwinds to constrain growth
- Saudi oil minister says he doesn’t know if market is oversupplied, doesn’t expect difficult meeting
- Iran president upbeat on nuclear talks
- Gundlach: Fed will hike in 2015 but not for fundamental reasons
- Gold down $3 to $1198
- WTI crude down 88-ents to $75.67
- S&P 500 up 5 to 2068
- US 10-year yields down 1 bps to 2.30%
- EUR leads, AUD lags
The euro crawled higher throughout the day after capping lower at the open. From 1.2360 the pair climbed all the way to 1.2441 but still erased less than half of Friday’s decline. The comments from Weidmann sent a minor shudder through the pair but the fall to 1.2420 from 1.2440 was later erased.
A main source of euro buying was in EUR/JPY. Friday’s decline in the pair was the worst in a year and selling continued to 145.59 in Asia but the pair started a march higher that peaked at 147.35 early in US trading. That level virtually matches the 61.8% retracement of Friday’s decline so keep a close eye on it.
USD/JPY was unexciting. After a quick run in Europe, the upside continued in early US trading but the pair ran into sellers ahead of 118.50 and stalled before sliding back to 118.26. Minor support at 118.13 eyed.
Cable was perky throughout the day. It formed a triple bottom at 1.5630 overnight and on Friday and marched nicely to 1.5715, narrowly breaking Friday’s high.
AUD/USD was pinned by some heavy options at 0.8600, including almost $3 billion on Tuesday. News of some BHP spending cuts was the main negative and the gains from the China rate cut are long gone. Last at 0.8614.
Part of the story was also general commodity currency weakness. USD/CAD rose to 1.1300 on softness in oil and mixed signals from OPEC.
