Forex news from the European morning session 17 September

News:

  • SNB leaves key interest rates on hold
  • Swiss govt says economic growth will stay below average in 2016
  • SNB's Jordan says he has no exchange rate targets
  • Swiss Franc is still overvalued says SNB's Jordan
  • ECB says it's premature to assess impact of current events on inflation
  • China to ramp up infrastructure spending to meet growth target - Livesquawk
  • China's Xi says economy resilient and has huge potential
  • Italy's Visco says monetary policy responded quickly to European debt crisis
  • EU's Moscovici says Greek haircut is not on the table
  • BP official says oil price will drop and stay down for a long time
  • BOJ's Kuroda expects Japan to continue moderate economic recovery
  • Japan's Aso says business executives must divert corporate profits
  • FOMC: Time for sense or more excuses?
  • USDJPY option-related supply at 121.00 keeps a lid on rallies so far
  • M&A news may weigh on EURUSD
  • UAE has a "firm commitment" to USD peg
  • Option expiries 10am NY cut today 17 Sept

Data:

  • August 2015 UK retail sales 0.2% vs 0.2% exp m/m
  • July 2015 Eurozone construction output +1.0% v s-1.9% prior m/m
  • Greece Q2 unemployment rate 24.6 vs 25.3% exp
  • Nikkei 225 closes up +1.43 % at 18,432.27

It's understandably been a cautious session so far with all eyes firmly fixed on the FOMC

It's been a mixed bag with USDJPY underpinned but tempered by option related offers at 121.00 while GBPUSD found support below 1.5500 and then spent most of the morning around 1.5515 until a quick run through 1.5530 res/offers to post 1.5550 before just as quickly retreating

EURUSD has enjoyed some decent demand having found early support at 1.1285 and EURJPY buying has taken it to 1.1338 before both pairs found offers related to the USDJPY supply

The SNB kept interest rates on hold as expected although USDCHF still had a look at 0.9665 support from 0.9705 but with EURCHF failing to respond as strongly. CHFJPY plays were also in focus

Oil prices came lower but USDCAD was loathe to go too much higher from 1.3170 lows and offers above 1.3200 have capped so far.

AUDUSD continues to be undermined by strong offers/res around 0.7200 but demand into 0.7150 noted while NZDUSD also remains in a 0.6330-80 range

All eyes on the FOMC but we have some US data to digest first as the warm-up act