Forex news an trading headlines 6 December 2016

  • Confusion over Italian elections

  • More FX option expiries of note this week

  • Merkel won't allow cherry picking in Brexit negotiations

  • EU's Barnier says they are ready to receive UK notification of withdrawal

  • Eurozone Q3 GDP final qq +0.3% as expected

  • BOE FPC Minutes: UK financial stability has mostly been maintained through a challenging period of uncertainty

  • UK's Hammond says all options open for Brexit talks

  • Forex option expiries for the 10am (15.00 GMT) New York cut 6 December 2016

  • November 2016 Swiss CPI -0.3% vs -0.2% exp y/y

  • German factory orders jump in October

A rather tame morning in Europe with not a lot to show for it.

EURUSD isn't showing any signs of nerves ahead of Thursday's ECB meeting. We've pretty much held on to yesterday's gains into 1.0700 but have fallen short of a real attempt on 1.0800 with 1.0785 the high today. Support at 1.0745/50 gave way briefly to the next band at 1.0730/35 before making the days highs, and has since slipped back below there to post a 1.0729 low after the Italian election news.

That drop dragged down the crosses with EURJPY losing 60 odd pips to 122.12, and EURGBP falling to 0.8415 from 0.8440.

GBPUSD had also been knocking around the high end of 1.27 before drifting from the 1.2775 high to 1.2732. Day 2 of the Brexit court case is under way but there's not been any news there. The quid is also ignoring the grandstanding from EU lead negotiator, Michael Barnier on what will or won't be allowed in Brexit talks. That was backed up by Merkel too.

USDJPY is in a doze between 113.50 and 114.19, with a tighter range developing between 113.70 and 114.00.

Not a lot to write about any other pairs and even oil is taking it easy today.

The calendar is a bit light today also, as is usually the case the week after NFP week. We have US Non-farm productivity at 13.30 GMT and then Factory orders with the durable goods revisions at 15.00 GMT.

We're also due the latest NZ dairy auction which should be out sometime around 14.00 GMT, depending on when they get done.