Forex news and trading headlines 23 December 2016
News:
- Christmas is a time for giving but not for giving your profits away
- Anis Amri shot dead in Milan
- Deutsche Bank agrees a USD 7.2bln settlement with US authorities
- Option expiries for the 10 am NY cut today 23 Dec
Data:
- Q3 2016 UK GDP final 0.6% vs 0.5% exp q/q
- France Q3 GDP final qq +0.2% as expected
- Eurozone household wealth falls 10%
- Germany January GFK consumer confidence 9.9 as exp
- Spain PPI Nov mm +0.2% vs +1.5% prev
- Switzerland KOF leading indicator Dec 102.2 vs 103.00 exp
It's been an understandably quiet session with the pound hogging the spotlight again.
More GBPEUR buying up to 0.8536 and GBPJPY selling down to 143.72 has seen GBPUSD fail into 1.2300 and fall back to 1.2245 before running into fresh demand. UK Q3 GDP data had a slightly stronger headline but softer underbelly leaving GBP pairs vulnerable to rally selling still.
Definitely a case of month/year-end flows still and that's kept USDJPY also on the back foot with yen demand overall continuing and helping to cap other core pairs. EURUSD has been caught in the cross-ccy crossfire and option interest again keeping it tightly bound around 1.0450.
USDCHF and EURCHF remain underpinned with the SNB quietly in the frame while AUDUSD has been tight-ranged with large option interest at 0.7200 again. USDCAD also has interest at 1.3500 which has helped cap after decent demand appearing around.
It's distinctly Xmas time though with many desks/books closing for the day/month/year even as I type.
