Forex news from the European morning session 8 April 2015

News:

  • BOJ's Kuroda says Tankan report shows business sentiment at favourable level
  • More from Kuroda: Downside risks to consumption not large
  • Kuroda says US interest rate hikes would be a positive for world economy
  • Austria's Schelling says unplanned Grexit has not become more likely in past month
  • Austria's Schelling warns Greece against getting closer to Russia
  • Greece is not asking Russia for financial aid
  • Germany's Tiesenhausen says Greece borrowing from Russia wouldn't be unusual
  • Bank of Spain's Linde says ECB QE already bearing fruit
  • Russian deputy fin min says current rouble rise is not a threat to financial stability
  • EU says progress is being made on Greece, step by step
  • BOE says banks are predicting an increase in Q2 mortgage lending
  • Option expiries 10am NY cut today 8 April

Data:

  • German factory orders Feb mm -0.9% vs +1.5% exp
  • Swiss CPI March +0.3% vs +0.1% exp
  • French trade balance Feb EUR -3.449bln vs -3.8bln exp
  • Eurozone retail sales Feb mm -0.2% as expected
  • Japanese economy watchers survey March - current 52.2 vs 50.5 exp
  • Nikkei 225 closes up 0.76% at 19,789.81

A morning that has seen USD losses across the board ahead of the FOMC Minutes later today but finding the euro the least inclined to take advantage

GBPUSD has gained a cent to 1.4950 encouraged by the RDS/BG deal potential while USDCAD has lost a cent to 1.2414 and AUDUSD has ploughed through the 0.7700 offers to post 0.7728 so far. NZDUSD has also come to the party with a solid rally to 0.7609 from 0.7530

USDJPY has been anchored above 119.70 though on cross play yen selling after failing to breach 120.00 while USDCHF has dropped from 0.9655 to 0.9598 but tempered by EURUSD failing to make progress beyond 1.0890

Ongoing Greek concerns continue to undermine the euro and we've seen EURGBP drop to near key support into 0.7260 from 0.7310 with EURJPY posting 129.89 from 130.35 despite yen losses elsewhere

Essentially we are range-trading for the moment, hoping that the FOMC provide some direction. Don't hold your breath though