Forex trading headlines for September 26, 2013:
- US initial jobless claims 305k vs 325k exp
- August US pending home sales -1.6% vs -1.0% exp
- US Q2 GDP (third reading) 2.5% vs 2.6% expected
- Fed’s Stein: “It was a close call for me” not to taper
- Fed’s Kocherlakota sounds the call for QEfinity
- Big caveat in the upward revision to non-farm payrolls
- SNB quarterly report upbeat on global growth
- Constancio says European recovery still very fragile
- Gold down $11 to $1323
- US oil up 31-cents to $102.96
- S&P 500 up 6 points to 1699
- NZD and USD lead, JPY lags
The main focus of conversation was Congress as the budget deadline approaches on Monday. There is talk about a weekend deal but no one expects a deal before the last minute.
EUR/USD was on the downward track in Europe and that continued, albeit slowly. We started the session just below 1.3500 but it was locked there with a $1b option expiry. Afterwards, it was lower but no lower than 1.3472. Last at 1.3484.
USD/JPY was locked to 99.00 on an option expiration and tried the upside afterwards, especially with the NFP revision. After a high of 99.13 provoked zero follow through and the NFP revision proved to be an illusion it was back down to 98.80.
EUR/CHF touched a fresh 6-week low at 1.2274, albeit barely. It was a slow slide down in US trading from 1.2305 down to the lows and it came for no particular reason.
