Forex news and economic headlines 7 April 2016

News:

Japan:

  • BOJ Sakura report keeps 8 out of 9 regions' assessment unchanged
  • BOA Merrill's Yamada says BOJ intervention possible at 105 but more likely at 100
  • Speculators have stopped believing in "Kuroda magic"- Nomura
  • BOJ's Nagoya branch manager: Yen rises unlikely to have a big impact on his region
  • BOJ's Osaka branch manager says companies in Kansai region want stable forex moves
  • USDJPY takes out the latest barrier option defence as the slide continues
  • Here's why the BOJ intervention risk could be real this time
  • Nikkei 225 closes up +0.22% at 15,759.84

ECB:

  • Draghi says ECB won't "surrender" to excessively low inflation
  • ECB's Constancio says they will do whatever required to pursue price stability objective
  • ECB's Praet return to structural growth and employment can not depend on monetary policy
  • ECB's best contribution to Europe is its mandate says ECB's Coeure
  • China's FX reserves March $3.21trln vs $3.2trln expected
  • China's major steel firms made losses of 11.4bln yuan in Jan-Feb
  • Option expiries 10am NY cut today 7 April

Data:

  • France trade balance Feb -€5.177bln vs -€3.7bln expected
  • Spain industrial output Feb yy SA +2.2% vs +3.0% expected
  • Q4 2015 UK unit labour costs 1.3% vs 1.9% exp y/y
  • UK Halifax house price index March mm +2.6% vs +0.9% expected

Another non-stop session that saw the yen once again running the show.

We began with USDJPY on Asian lows around 109.11 and it wasn't long before barrier option support at 109.00 was consigned to history as the pair motored on down south only briefly wiping its feet at the 108.50 barrier. Talk of sovereign name selling around that point saw a quick push through to 108.35 before then tumbling again to 108.02 ahead of the next barrier.

This one has held better, if only because the market has got a little extended in the short term and we've been back up to 108.46 before capping again. Yen pairs have all experienced a similar fate but core pairs have had their own story to tell.

EURUSD had an early rally to 1.1454 only to run into strong sell interest and we've been back to 1.1366 in rapid time while EURGBP posted fresh year-highs of 0.8117 before also being slapped down at pace to post 0.8065.

Blink and you miss it and we had cable posting 1.4157 then sold back to 1.4105 on the EURGBP demand before then being kicked in the butt again to post 1.4050 as general USD demand prevailed.

USDCAD, AUDUSD and NZDUSD all had their moments with the yen flows and it's been a real mixed bag of a morning but with ccys largely on the back foot.

US initial jobless claims data out next at 12.30 GMT with Yellen up to speak at 21.30 GMT