Forex trading headlines from the European morning session 4 March
Ukraine:
- Putin press conference: Ukraine saw an unconsitutional coup. (plenty more here)
- Putin presser Part 2 – Those that consider sanctions should think of the potential damage
- Russian president Putin orders troops to return to their bases
- Russian finance ministry says it cancels purchases of foreign ccy to replenish reserves
Data:
- February UK Markit/CIPS construction PMI 62.6 vs 63.0 exp
- January EZ producer prices -0.3% vs -0.1% exp m/m
- January German machine orders +6.0% vs -6.0% prior y/y
- Spanish unemployment change Feb m/m -1.95k vs +74.2k exp
- Nikkei closes up +0.47% at 14,721.48
- Shanghai comp index closes -0.18% at 2071.47
News:
- BOE’s Cunliffe says UK shouldn’t block further Euro integration
- Bernanke: US economy seeing some progress
- Bernanke: The darkest hour at the Fed was the Lehman collapse and AIG rescue
A session of mixed emotions after Russian president Putin first called for his military-exercising troops to return to base and then sends a varied message from his first presser since Yanukovich was ousted.
The session got off to a brisk start after Putin decided to send his troops back to base and we saw a sharp rally in euro pairs with EURUSD up to 1.3767 from 1.3730, EURJPY to 140.35 from 139.90 EURCHF to 1.2163 from 1.2135.
USDJPY jumped to 101.94 from 101.65 on yen selling and USDCHF chewed its way up to 0.8845 from 0.8830 ahead of strong sell interest at 0.8850 that it is still prevailing.
GBPUSD had joined in the earlier rally to 1.6695 from 1.6660 then went upstairs again to 1.6716 in a rush before falling back to 1..6675 on weaker construction PMI.
Putin’s presser has been well received by the markets elsewhere as a suggestion that escalation can be avoided and we’ve seen oil and gold drop while equities have surged after yesterday’s heavy falls. The forex market though has been notedly undecided and the current levels of USDJPY 101.85, EURUSD 1.3763 GBPUSD1.6693, EURCHF 1.2170 and USDCHF 0.8845 have been pinned to the floor throughout the last couple of hours.
USDCAD has fallen to 1.1062 from 1.1088 while NZDUSD has made another attempt on 0.8400 from 0.8370 and AUDUSD has by and large been stuck around 0.8955 no doubt hemmed in on cross plays.
A mixed morning then for sure and one that hasn’t really told us any more than we knew. Everything still got the jitters and delicately poised.
