Forex news from the European trading session - 24 May 2018
Headlines:
- EU's Katainen says US raising car tariffs would be against WTO rules
- Brexit bill will be brought back to the House of Commons in 'weeks'
- China and EU nations set to discuss Iran on 25 May
- ECB's Vasiliauskas doesn't disagree with forecasts of rate hike in six months
- UK government source denies report that PM May is seeking new Brexit transition until 2023
- UK April retail sales +1.6% vs +0.9% m/m expected
- ECB's Praet says that economic conditions are good despite 'clouds'
- US Justice Department opens criminal probe into Bitcoin manipulation
- China said to plan cut to tariffs on consumer goods
- BTPs find relief as Luigi Zingales is considered for finance minister
- France May business confidence 106 vs 108 expected
- BOJ's Sakurai says there is no need to raise long-term yield target for now
- Germany Q1 final GDP q/q +0.3% vs +0.3% prelim
- Germany June GfK consumer confidence 10.7 vs 10.8 expected
- BOJ's Sakurai says that it is too early to mull withdrawal of stimulus
- Japan March final leading indicator index 104.4 vs 105.0 prelim
Markets:
- CHF leads, CAD lags on the day
- European equities mostly higher, DAX weighed by autos, UK100 weighed by GBP
- Gold is up 0.22% to $1,296.20
- WTI is down 1.06% to $71.08
- US 10-year yields is up 0.8 bps to 3.000%
- Bitcoin is down 3.01% to $7,362
The session started off slow with the yen being the prime mover in trading following news that Trump is opening up an investigation on US autos tariffs on the grounds of national security. That triggered a bout of risk aversion as Asian stocks ended in the red for the most part.
But that changed soon after as European traders mainly shrugging off the negativity of the trade rhetoric. The DAX is weighed down by the news as autos stocks are taking a hit, but that's about it in terms of any serious risk aversion.
The pound then climbed in the half hour to the release of the retail sales data and the data was a beat with upward revisions to the prior figures too. That helped send cable to highs of 1.3422 on the day, but failed to break free above the 100-hour MA. Subsequently, cable is now trading around the 1.3400 figure level as traders look to find further direction on the day.
The bid in the pound also helped out the euro as EUR/USD climbed to a high of 1.1746 before falling back down to 1.1720 levels in the aftermath of the action and has stayed near there until now. USD/JPY also has had a rather subdued session mainly ranging between 110.40 to 110.60 levels for the most part.
Meanwhile, commodity currencies remain soggy as risk appetite hasn't fully improved yet with the loonie being the worst performer on the day - weighed down by weaker oil prices and the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the NAFTA deal.
Apart from that, we also had the US open up a criminal probe on whether or not traders are manipulating the price movement in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. That sparked a bit of fear in the crypto space with Bitcoin falling to a low of more than 3% earlier.
