Forex news from the European morning session 12 Feb
News:
- ECB in talks to buy Italian bad debt under QE
- BUBA trims 2016 German inflation forecast to +0.25% vs +1.1% prev
- Spanish confidence vote on new PM to be held 2 March
- Well that's another nice mess you've gotten me into: More from John Hearn
- HKMA's Chan says HKD peg will stay
- HSBC say it will keep its HQ in London
- HSBC boss says Brexit would trigger "a period of uncertainty"
- Option expiries 10am NY cut today 15 Feb
- More option expiries of note this week 15-19 Feb
- Nikkei closes up +7.16% at 16,022.58
Data:
- Eurozone trade balance Dec SA €21.0bln vs €22.0bln exp
A far quieter session as markets weigh up recent equity gains, the latest from China, the US/Canadian holidays and Draghi later today.
Soft Japanese data had the Nikkei flying higher on increased talk of further easing and this underpinned USDJPY through the Asian session and into early Europe. 114.00 was breached eventually just after the Nikkei close when we saw futures jump higher but since then the move has been faded despite solid shows from European equity markets.
Both of these have shrugged off disappointing Chinese data which saw its equity markets close down -0.6% on its return from the Lunar Year hols.
The positive tones in Europe have seen the DAX rise over 3% and that in turn has pushed the euro lower but we've seen decent demand in the dips to keep ranges contained.
The two-way business has seen GBPUSD fall from 1.4525 to 1.4457 before running into buyers while USDCHF has taken good advantage of the risk-on sentiment to post 0.9847 with EURCHF still underpinned.
Gold has fallen while oil has mostly been underpinned with Brent posting highs of $33.80 and WTI $30.15 and that in turn has seen USDCAD down testing 1.3800 before rallying to 1.3840. AUDUSD and NZDUSD have been contained on the cross plays.
The lack of North American markets could lend itself to greater volatility with the focus now firmly on Draghi at 14.00 GMT