Forex trading headlines from the European trading session 23 July
News:
- SNB’s Jordan says CHF cap to stay for foreseeable future
- Japan to cut discretionary spending by ¥4tn in 2015/16 budget
- Spain looking to hit the growth trail as Bank of Spain raise growth forecasts
- BOJ’s Nakaso says reaction to sales tax increase is within expectations
- Kicking the pound while it’s down
Data:
- MPC voted 9-0 to keep rates unchanged at July monetary policy meeting
- UK BBA mortgage approvals June 43,265 vs 41,375 exp
- July UK CBI distributive trades 21 vs 16 exp
- Italian non-EU trade balance June flash EUR +2.15 bln vs +2.45 bln prev
- US MBA mortgage market index 349.4 vs 341.1 prior
- French business climate July 97 vs 98 exp
- Nikkei closes down 0.1% at 15328.56
The session started out with the euro remaining on the back foot but it wasn’t too long before the pound took centre stage for it’s own time under the heat of the spotlight
EURUSD had an early look at the 1.3455 bids protecting the 1.3450 barrier but bounced back to 1.3465 and has since climbed a tad higher as EURGBP caught a bid from 0.7875 to 0.7908 following the 9-0 MPC vote on unchanged UK interest rates which saw cable drop from 1.7092 to 1.7067.
Better than previous mortgage approvals provided a few bids back to 1.7082 but then it was bail-out time for the bulls and we’ve posted new recent lows of 1.7031 dragging down pound pairs with it.
USDJPY once again has been in a tight range around 101.40 engineered by yen cross action while USDCHF posted early highs of 0.9033 as EURUSD fell but since then has drifted back below 0.9020.
AUDUSD had caught a bid in Asia on CPI data and EURAUD selling and we edged a little higher from 0.9435 to test the offers around 0.9450 and we’ve sat at 0.9447 since. NZDUSD also found bids in the dips o/n but has traded tightly between 0.8682-92 in this session while USDCAD drifted off to 1.0712 before staging a small bounce to 1.0725
All eyes on the pound then for the moment with BOE gov Carney up to the rostrum at 11.45 GMT to deliver a speech in Glasgow as part of the trade investment initiative provided by the Commonwealth Games starting today.