Forex news from the European morning session 3 March 2015
News:
- EBA says its has decided not to carry out EU-wide stress tests in 2015
- China says deflation risk is not big and 7% growth is reasonable
- BOE's Carney says that whether there was any "awareness" of forex market manipulation sets a very high bar
- RBA and PBOC keeps AUDUSD guessing
- Option expiries 10am NY cut today
Data:
- German retail sales Jan mm +2.9% vs +0.4% exp
- Spanish unemployment change Feb -13.5k vs -2.9k exp
- February 2015 UK Markit CIPS construction PMI 60.1 vs 59.0 exp
- January 2015 eurozone PPI -0.9% vs -0.7% exp m/m
- Swiss Q4 GDP qq +0.6%% vs +0.3% exp
- Nikkei 225 closes down -0.06% at 18,815.16
A session today played out in slo-mo in many ways but not one without opportunity
The Euro found some early cheer from German retails and Spanish unemployment which saw EURUSD rally to 1.1212 from 1.1380, EURGBP to 0.7288 from 0.7275, and EURJPY to 134.15 from 133.90.
But those gains were shortlived as traders found a lack of appetite to take the moves any further and we've since retreated back to 1.1162, 0.7363 and 113.80 as I type
GBPUSD had early demand capped at 1.5385 by EURGBP buying and we saw only a limited rally back above 1.5370 following better construction data but the retreat has found demand into 1.5360 as EURGBP also slipped back
USDCHF and EURCHF have both enjoyed a decent rally despite better than expected Q4 GDP and we've seen 0.9619 and 1.0759 from 0.9577 and 1.0715 with conjecture once again whether the SNB might have had a hand on the tiller. USDJPY had fallen in Asia on a softer Nikkei but had run into support ahead of 119.50 and we've seen a gradual rally above 119.85 albeit one capped by yen-pair selling
USDCAD had an early dip into 1.2500 on firming oil prices but has held there so far while AUDUSD failed to overcome strong resistance/offers at 0.7850 and has fallen back to 0.7805 but demand at 0.7800 has prevented further losses. NZDUSD found sellers into 0.7550 after its AUD-led rally and has since retreated toward 0.7530
Scrappy session really but pips to be had for the intra-day trader. Bigger picture focus though is on the ECB and NFPs at the end of the week
