Forex trading news and economic data headlines 8 May 2017

News:

  • Macron will be tough in Brexit talks says his economic adviser
  • Moody's say Macron's policy platform is credit positive for France
  • Fitch say French election result reduces political risk but challenges ahead
  • Germany to discuss with France to strengthen the Eurozone once French government formed
  • S&P say ratings on France unaffected by Macron being elected
  • ECB's Mersch says any talks on normalisation must be orderly and prudent
  • EURUSD trades as expected after Macron win so what happens now?
  • EURUSD clinging on to 1.0950 as European equities extend losses
  • Mitsubishi's Hirano says Japan doesn't need more monetary or fiscal stimulus
  • Japan's Asakawa says Chinese economic slowdown is a major global risk
  • SNB total sight deposits w-e 5 May CHF 573.07bln vs 571.45bln prev
  • Forex option expiries for the 10am New York cut 8 May
  • More option expiries of note this week 9-12 May
  • Nikkei 225 closes up +2.31% at 19,895.70

Data:

  • German March factory orders mm +1.0% vs +0.7% exp
  • May 2017 Eurozone Sentix investor confidence index 27.4 vs 25.2 exp
  • UK Halifax April house price index mm -0.1% vs +0.1% exp
  • China Q1 current account surplus flash USD 19bln
  • Japan's consumer confidence dips in April

It's all relative of course with EURUSD at 1.0950 and CAC40 still near 9 1/2 year highs but we've definitely seen some money come of the table since the spike higher in Asia.

EURUSD had already tested 1.0950 from the 1.1026 highs before Europe got started and it wasn't long before we were looking at 1.1000 again with EURGBP and EURJPY following higher too.

Failure there coincided with European equity futures fading and after officially opening in positive territory it wasn't long before equity markets were in retreat with CAC40 leading the way from +0.2% down to -0.9%.

Cue falls in euro pairs and after wiping its feet stubbornly at 1.0950 we eventually broke lower to post 1.0935 with EURGBP down to 0.8434 and EURJPY 122.98 before dip-buyers prevailed.

Meanwhile the fall in EURGBP from 0.8480 was underpinning GBPUSD and we rallied from 1.2950 to 1.2987 just short of the 1.2993 Asian highs before the strong sell interest into 1.3000 prevailed again. Lows since of 1.2955.

USDCHF found support into 0.9850 again in Asia and as EURUSD came lower so we rallied to 0.9920 but capped by EURCHF falling to test support at 1.0850 and then bouncing to 1.0880 again.

USDCAD rallied to 1.3685 on some CADJPY supply and softer oil prices having held a second attempt on 1.3650 while AUDUSD had a quick spike from 0.7400 ( where option expiry interest rolls off today) to test 0.7425 resistance/offers before retreating.

Data releases provided little impact and with little else to come of note but we do have Fed heads Bullard and Mester speaking at 12.35 and 12.45 GMT