Forex news for November 17, 2014:
- November 2014 US Empire State manufacturing index 10.16 vs 11.0 exp
- Draghi: Economic outlook in eurozone ‘increasingly sobering’
- Draghi says expanded purchase program could include govt bonds
- Nikkei – ‘Abe set to announce sales tax delay, early elections’
- US October industrial production -0.1% vs +0.2% expected
- ECB’s Praet: Weakest part of eurozone recovery is the lack of investment from firms
- Praet expects ECB monetary policy to accelerate in coming months
- Praet: Confident we will hit 1 trillion euro balance sheet expansion
- Venezuela, Russia discussed defending oil price amid price drop – Ministry
- Canadian Oct existing home sales +0.7% vs -1.4% prior
- Fed’s Powell says the US is not yet feeling impact of external cooling
- Gold down $3.50 to $1185
- US 10-year yields up 2 bps to 2.34%
- WTI crude down 26-cents to $75.56
- S&P 500 up 1.5 points to 2041 — fifth consecutive day of sub-0.1% moves
- NZD and USD lead, EUR lags
Mild dollar strength was the theme, as it tends to be lately when nothing much is going on.
USD/JPY came into the session on the upswing at about 116.25 after rebounding from soft Japanese GDP figures. A push up through 116.50 retraced the intraday 61.8% level but there was no follow through and the pair stuck closely to that level.
EUR/USD was at 1.2500 as Draghi took the stage. He touched on virtually everything about the economy and monetary policy and the takeaway was dovish, although he did say some of the measures taken previously were starting to have an effect. His explicit comments about buying sovereigns got the most attention and pulled EUR/USD to 1.2450. Talk of bids at 1.2420, support at 1.2400.
Cable was quiet in a 1.5630 to 1.5660 range. Looks like a bit of a wedge on the intraday chart — it won’t stay quiet for long.
The Australian dollar is in focus with the RBA minutes coming up. It unwound some of Friday’s strength after a strong start. On the day, it closes down about 40 pips to 0.8712 with most of US trading in a 0.8695 to 0.8725 range.
USD/CAD hit the highs of the day at 1.1328 on soft securities inflows into Canada but oil prices stopped falling and that pulled the pair back to 1.1301 at day’s end.
