Forex news from the European morning session 12 August

News:

  • PBOC said to be intervening to temper yuan decline
  • PBOC to hold a briefing tomorrow at 01.15 GMT
  • USDCNY closes at 6.3870, yuan down 1%
  • German government seeking to solve Greek debt-cut problem
  • German economy in "solid growth phase"
  • RBA's Lowe sees economic risks in ever-rising house prices
  • IEA forecasts that world oil demand will grow by 1.6m bpd in 2015, up by 200k bpd prev
  • Data sold on demand in $100m hacking operation
  • Option expiries 10am NY cut today 12 August

Data:

  • UK average weekly earnings 3mth-year June +2.4% vs +2.8% exp
  • China industrial production July yy 6.0% vs +6.6% exp
  • China retail sales July yy +10.5% vs +10.6% exp
  • Eurozone industrial output June mm -0.4% vs -0.1% exp
  • US MBA mortgage purchase index falls 3.5% vs last week
  • French current account balance June €1bln vs +0.2bln prev
  • Italian global trade balance June +€2.809bln vs +4.141bln prev
  • Portugal CPI July mm -0.7% vs -0.5% exp
  • Switzerland ZEW investor sentiment Aug 5.9 vs -5.4 prev
  • Nikkei 225 closes down -1.58% at 20,392.77

It's been another morning of love for the euro but we've seen USD selling, pound weakness and CHF strength too in a real mixed bag

The second PBOC deval overnight saw a grab of the greenback but that faded once again as Europe got to work

The euro once again found favour and we've seen highs on EURUSD of 1.1157 before profit-taking set in with EURJPY up to 138.80 and EURGBP to 0.7169

The latter pair was given an additional boost on weaker UK wages/jobs data which saw cable tumble to 1.5533 after earlier highs of 1.5605

USDJPY looked comfortable enough above 125.00 even with the Nikkei falling but then it was all change and a rapid run to 124.80 then further to 124.60 and now sliding again to 124.40 as I type

USDCHF couldn't breach 0.9900 and has found safe-haven flows/lack of SNB giving it a shove all the way back down to 0.9750 with EURCHF capping at 1.0963 to post 1.0870

AUDUSD enjoyed the relief after post-PBOC lows of 0.7215 and has made steady progress to 0.7360 after taking out 0.7260 and 0.7300 res/offers

USDCAD has trodden a steady path lower to 1.2969 from 1.3120 as the USD selling accelerated and oil turned firmer while NZDUSD has enjoyed a rally to 0.6620 res/offers from 0.6485

Not a good morning for the greenback but the jury remains out on the PBOC impact . Certainly scattering a few pigeons at the moment