Forex news and economic headlines 26 April 2016

News:

  • Japan's Nakahara says BOJ shouldn't act now
  • Japan's GPIF has no plans to change its portfolio
  • BOJ's Kuroda says impact of negative rates on banks overall is very limited
  • China announces 10-point plan to promote consumption and boost economy
  • Russia's Novak not aware of any plans for new meeting on oil production freeze
  • ECB's Draghi set to appear before German lawmakers to explain policy
  • Spain's Socialist Party says it's ready for last minute talks with other leftist forces
  • BP expects Q2 oil production to be lower than Q1
  • GBPUSD nearing its first big test of the 2015 drop
  • EURUSD chewing through the offers around 1.1300. Stops noted above.
  • Falling iron ore futures undermine the Aussie$
  • AUDUSD pops 0.7730 and triggers stops
  • Option expiries 10am NY cut today 26 April
  • Nikkei 225 closes down -0.49% at 17,353.28

Data:

  • March 2016 UK BBA mortgage approvals report 45,098 vs 46,500 ex[

It's been a busy session that saw early yen-demand send core pairs lower but the USDJPY bearish sentiment then set the tone for US$ supply elsewhere. Attention is focussed on the FOMC decision tomorrow but prior to that today we have US durable goods at 12.30 GMT and markets appear to have been factoring in a soggy number.

We started the session with USDJPY hovering around 111.00 off session lows as the Nikkei pared some losses into the close but it didn't take long for the pair to retreat and post new session lows of 110.67. The move dragged EURUSD down to 1.1257, GBPUSD to 1.4580 and AUDUSD to 0.7700 all in tight ranges still.

Then the US$ selling began and as European equity markets opened firmer we saw euro selling which didn't take EURUSD any lower but instead sent GBPUSD up through the 1.4520 offers/res to eventually post 1.4579 as EURGBP fell through the strong 0.7750 support.

As the USD-neg sentiment caught hold but with USDJPY also finding dip-demand we saw EURUSD rally to test strong offers/res around 1.1300 and AUDUSD up through the 0.7730 res/offers to eventually post 0.7753 before both retreating with traders taking some intra-day money off the table.

USDCHF has been following EURUSD round like a Spring lamb follows its mother with EURCHF still underpinned

USDCAD has found itself under pressure too but tempered initially a little by softer oil prices before they turned higher again and we've seen the pair fall to 1.2626 before finding support.

US durable goods data at 12.30 GMT the immediate focus.