Forex news from the European morning session 16 April 2015

News:

  • EU says they are not satisfied with level of progress on Greek programme
  • Leading German economic institutes raise forecast for 2015 growth to 2.1% vs 1.2% prev
  • ECB forecasters raise Eurozone GDP & inflation forecasts
  • Putin says sanctions are not the main problem for Russian economy
  • Former Fed chair Bernanke joins hedge-fund Citadel

Data:

  • Option expiries 10am NY cut today 16 April
  • Italian global trade balance Feb EUR +3.538bln vs +219mln prev
  • Swiss producer & import prices March mm +0.2% vs +0.0% exp
  • Japanese machine tool orders March final +14.9% vs 14.6% prev
  • Nikkei 225 closes up +0.08% at 19,885.77

A session of mixed sentiment as first the USD bulls returned with euro on the ropes again but then one sharp move and it was all change to send the greenback lower again

Early moves were focussed on Grexit concerns and saw EURUSD continue its late-Asian retreat from 1.0747 highs to post 1.0625 with EURGBP falling to 4-week lows of 0.7165 and EURJPY to 126.74 before finding a bit of support

Then followed a period of consolidation before suddenly we saw USD tumble in rapid fashion and for seemingly no key reason other than flows and stops. EURUSD was up in a flash to 1.0700 from 1.0660 and since posted 1.0736

GBPUSD also trundled lower early on from 1.4850 but the dip was tempered by the EURGBP selling with lows of 1.4812 before rebounding to 1.4840 and then exploding through 1.4885 triggering stops to travel easily through 1.4900 to post 1.4930 before stalling but bids back in at 1.4915 to then see 1.4941 so far

USDJPY spent the early part of the session treading water with USD demand countered by yen-pair selling but then it was a rapid drop to 118.92 from 119.30 but with yen-pairs seeing a reversal higher on the rapid rise in core pairs elsewhere

USDCAD had bounced off 1.2250 to post 1.2328 but offers into 1.2350 were enough to send the pair into retreat to 1.2280 and then 1.2250 again which has held once more. USDCHF had climbed steadily from 0.9625 to 0.9713 only to turn back in sharp fashion to 0.9625 again

AUDUSD and NZDUSD ran into sellers intially after failing at 0.7780 and 0.7610 but to limited effect and both pairs took advantage of the turnaround to post 0.7798 and 0.7667 clearing out a few offers at 0.7780 and 0.7640 along the way

Crazy moves and as yet no real explanation, so with data due from the US the scene is set for some further volatility