Forex news from the European morning session 10 August

News:

  • US Fed's Fischer says low interest rate policy has worked

  • EU says progress has been made on Greece

  • OPEC says there are no plans to holds emergency meeting on oil price falls

  • OECD sees stable growth but slowing down expected in China

  • Putin says Russian central bank "doing much" to strengthen the rouble

  • Option expiries 10am NY cut today 10 August

Data:

  • Eurozone Sentix investor confidence Aug 18.4 vs 20.3 exp
  • Bank of France industrial business climate indicator July 98 as exp
  • Japanese economy watchers index current July 51.6 vs 51.0 prev
  • Nikkei closes up +0.41% at 20,808.69

It's been a slow start to the week but one that's generally some US$ demand again

USDJPY found some early support above 124.40 as the Nikkei closed in firmer mode and then chewed through offers at 124.50 and 124.70 to post 124.79 before running out of steam

Early euro demand saw EURUSD post 1.0981 from 1.0965 dragging EURGBP to 0.7098 before both pairs ran into sellers and retreated to support/bids at 1.0925 and 0.7060 respectively

The EURGBP demand gave supply to cable and we saw a dip to 1.5458 from 1.5503 before a reverse in fortunes on both pairs gave GBPUSD a lift back to 1.5500

USDCHF remains underpinned helped by occasional SNB support and has risen to 0.9859 from 0.9805 before running into offers while EURCHF remains similarly in demand above 1.0700 but faces good supply at 1.0800

USDCAD enjoyed a decent rally above 1.3180 from 1.3150 only to give up those gains as I type

with AUDUSD finding demand into 0.7350 again after falling from 0.7400 and NZDUSD trawling along the bottom again but holding above 0.6550 so far

Enough pip movement to make in the intra-day traders happy but the USD jury is still out