Forex trading headlines from the European morning session 28 February
- Ukraine: Putin orders govt to continue contact with “partners in Kiev”
- Interior minister condemns seizure of airports in Crimea as armed occupation
- Ukraine’s Turchinov calls emergency session of security chiefs
- Ukraine’s acting president dismisses chief of staff of armed forces
- Ukrainian PM says govt will not intervene in central bank policy
- Ukraine has reserves to cover all creditors says government
- Here come the capital controls as Ukraine CB limits currency withdrawals
- Data:
- February EZ HICP flash 0.8% vs 0.7% exp y/y
- German retail sales Jan m/m +2.5% vs +1.0% exp
- UK Nationwide HPI Feb m/m +0.6% as exp vs +0.8% prev
- February Italian HICP flash 0.5% vs 0.6% exp y/y
- Eurozone unemployment rate Jan 12.0% as exp/prev
- January Italian unemployment rate 12.9% vs 12.7% exp
- Spanish current account surplus Dec y/y EUR +2.1 bln vs +2.7 bln prev
- French producer prices Jan m/m -0.6% vs -0.3% exp
- Spanish HICP flash Feb y/y 0.0% vs +0.1% exp
- Swiss KOF leading indicator Feb +2.03 vs +2.0 exp
- Chinese yuan closes at 6.1450 vs session highs of 6.1808
- PBOC says yuan fall “is tolerable”
- Nikkei closes down -0.55% at 14,841.07
- Shanghai Composite Index closes up 0.44% at 2056.30
- Hot Air:
- Schaeuble says Europe no longer the main focus of world woes
- Schaeuble won’t change ESM treaty
- Fed’s Fisher: If stocks were to fall he would not flinch from tapering as long as economy is growing
- ECB’s Sabine L says to assume public backstops to be in place if needed
- Portugal to conclude aid program in May says PM Coelho
Crazy, crazy crazy month-end flow, data and Ukraine back-drop providing chaos and mayhem across the board.
Too much to detail here so let’s summarize
- GBPUSD got early lift to 1.6720 then another burst higher on better house price data. 1.6750 capped until strong EZ CPI-led move higher to 1.6768. only to fall back to 1.6695 as EURGBP surged to.8267 aided by the month-end BUBA demand having looked only offered around 0.8200 earlier on.
- EURUSD pinned around 1.3715 having been capped by softer data until EZ CPI saw it surge to 1.3784 in seconds before then taking out barrier option at 1.3800. Rose to 1.3812 before moving back to 1.3690.
- USDCHF already looking offered on Ukraine/USD bid early plays dropped to 0.8825 from 0.8865 after EURUSD surge. Low post 0.8810
- USDJPY caught in the cross play crossfire and has risen to 102.00 from 1.0164 and then stayed around 101.90
- AUDUSD largely 0.8950-60. NZDUSD still bid at 0.8410 but off its highs. USDCAD had the morning off again in this session.
US GDP up at 13.30 GMT will add to the mix before the afternoon fixes when more month-end flows will impact.
Heady stuff but plenty of two-way opportunity. No complaints there.
