Forex headlines for April 11, 2014:

  • April prelim U Mich consumer sentiment 82.6 vs 81.0 expected
  • US March PPI +1.4% y/y vs +1.1% expected
  • Nowotny says ECB might revise inflation projections upward in June
  • ECB’s Coeure says they are ready to act if needed
  • BOJ’s Kuroda told G20 Japan is on path to reaching 2% inflation goal
  • ECB’s Weidmann says any unconventional measures will have to fulfill many conditions
  • Confidential NATO analysis sees Russia seeking full Ukraine occupation
  • IMF repeats that there is room for further ECB easing
  • Lew says more needs to be done to support growth in Eurozone
  • G20 communique says they’re mindful of risks to economic and financial stability in Ukraine
  • DBRS confirms Italy and Spain ratings
  • Chinese finance minister says won’t do large-scare stimulus ‘blindly’
  • CFTC Commitments of Traders highlights
  • GAP says store traffic remained slow after weather cleared
  • NSA knew about the heartbleed vulnerability and instead of closing it, they exploited it
  • Gold flat at $1318
  • WTI crude flat at $103.40
  • S&P 500 down 17 points to 1816
  • Worst week in the S&P 500 since June 2012
  • NZD leads, CAD lags
  • On the week CHF leads, CAD lags

If you’re scrambling through those headlines for a reason to explain the stock market fall, it’s not there. The momentum from Thursday continued and JPMorgan reported soft earnings. The market opened down and bounced back to unchanged a couple times before finally rolling over.

The FX story was how little the currency market cared. Bonds weren’t big movers either, although the 4 bps decline in 30-year Treasury yields to 3.48% was the lowest since July.

It’s the second-day in a row that USD/JPY stared down a rout in stocks and didn’t flinch. The Nikkei dropped 2.4%, breaking some key support levels and the pain elsewhere was substantial. Still, USD/JPY fell to 101.33 in Asia and not another pip lower. It closed out the day 9 pips higher at 101.62.

EUR/USD flirted with 1.3900 in Asia and again in US trading but the US range was narrow. The low of 1.3864 came after the PPI but the series was completely revised and the market later tossed it aside.

Cable took a hit in Europe sliding 50 pips down to 1.6718 and it never really recovered. US risk aversion led to some stock selling but the pair faded in test of 1.6750 and ended at 1.6728.

USD/CAD trended higher, hitting a session high of 1.0985 late in the day. It still wasn’t enough to pull the pair into positive territory on the week.

The aussie and kiwi consolidated, finishing at 0.9394 and 0.8677, respectively.

Have a great weekend!