Forex news from the European morning session - 14 January 2020
Headlines:
- UK, France, Germany trigger Iran nuclear deal dispute mechanism amid repeated violations
- US December NFIB small business optimism index 102.7 vs 104.6 expected
- Moody's sees negative outlook for euro area sovereigns this year
- ECB's Mersch: Euro area economy, inflation is giving good signs of stabilisation
- UK PM Johnson: We are very likely to get a comprehensive EU trade deal by year-end
- US-China Phase One trade deal signing is "just the first round of a game"
- China says that removal of currency manipulator tag is 'in line with the truth'
- China to buy ~$80 billion more of US manufactured goods over two years in Phase One trade deal - report
Markets:
- CHF leads, NZD lags on the day
- European equities mixed; E-minis down 0.1%
- US 10-yeear yields down 0.4 bps to 1.842%
- Gold down 0.3% to $1,543.34
- WTI up 0.5% to $58.40
- Bitcoin up 5.7% to $8,595
Markets kept a more steady tone in general as we continue to wait on the US-China Phase One trade deal signing in Washington tomorrow.
There was a bit of a mixed mood with stocks gaining some ground and retreating, though overall movement is relatively modest as we look towards North American trading.
As such, USD/JPY continues to hug the 110.00 handle as it has done throughout the session with little change observed among most major currencies during the morning.
The pound was a little more active as cable slipped from 1.2980 to a low of 1.2955 before recovering to hit a high of 1.3014 and then easing back to near unchanged levels now.
Meanwhile, the franc is keeping a decent advance on the day as EUR/CHF falls to its lowest level since April 2017 with the Swiss government playing down manipulation claims after the US Treasury placed Switzerland on its currency watch list earlier today.
Looking ahead, it's all about the anticipation ahead of the key risk event tomorrow but just be mindful that we have US CPI data to get through in the session to come as well.
