Forex news from the European morning session 20 November 2014
News:
- Japanese Lower House election to be held on Dec 14
- UK voters head to the polls in Rochester. Great expectations or a bleak house ahead ?
Data:
- October 2014 UK retail sales 0.8% vs 0.3% exp m/m
- Eurozone Markit PMI Nov flash 50.4 vs 50.8 exp
- German Markit mftg PMI Nov flash 50.00 vs 51.5 exp
- French Markit mftg PMI Nov flash 47.6 vs 48.8 exp
- UK CBI Industrial trends – total orders Nov +3 vs -5 exp
- September 2014 Italian industrial orders -1.5% vs -1.0% exp m/m
- German PPI Oct mm -0.2% as exp
- Swiss trade balance Oct CHF +3.26bln vs +2.57bln exp
- Nikkei closes up +0.07% at 17,300.86
In a session light on rhetoric but with some market-moving data we’ve seen a busy session but offering no real conclusions as the post-FOMC inquest continues
USDJPY continued its journey north and posted 118.98 from 118.65 before the air got a bit thin and we saw a rapid retreat to 118.30-40, then a rally to 118.65 a couple of times before breaking lower to post 117.97 . Yen pairs have enjoyed a similar journey in what has been a blink-n-you-miss-it morning
EURUSD got an early boost to 1.2565 on EURJPY demand which also saw EURGBP test recent highs around 0.8030 again but weaker than expected EU PMIs started a rot which, accelerated by yen-pairs turning down, saw 1.2504 and 0.7975
GBPUSD had an early wobble down to 1.5632 on the EURGBP buying but then edged higher taking advantage of better retails data to post highs of 1.5688 before EURGBP demand in the dip to 0.7975 capped any further rally.
USDCHF had a steady move north to 0.9607 from 0.9560 as EURUSD fell away but has since dipped again to 0.9575 in a reverse move with EURCHF still anchored at 1.2012 while USDCAD has seen a similar pattern in a 1.1325-75 range.
AUDUSD staged an early move lower 0.8600 to 0.8566, then bounced to 0.8605, then dipped to 0.8580 before a steady rise to 0.8620 in what has also been a lively session for the pair with cross-play interest playing its part. NZDUSD similalry has staged a rally at the second time of asking before capping at 0.7867 so far.
Plenty of US data coming up to keep things bubbling nicely and this day has a long way to run yet.
