Forex trading headlines 18 February 2014
- Russian central bank lowers 2015-16 growth forecasts to +1.7-2.0%
- February US Empire state manufacturing 4.48 vs 9.0 exp
- December 2013 Canadian international securities transactions -C$4.28bn vs +C$8.66bn prior
- December 2013 US net flows -$51.0bn vs -$40.6bn prior
- Brazil’s Tombini says US tampering is net positive for Brazil and emerging markets
- February 2014 US NAHB housing market index 46 vs 56 prior
- US manufacturing starting to be written down after Empire data
- ECB forecasts may show inflation below 2% in 2016 says Nowotny
- Market reaction to Fed tapering has been overblown says Nowotny
- Spain’s Linde sees Spanish growth at 1.0% in 2014
- Spain joins France and Germany in wanting to cherry pick the FTT
- BOE’s McCafferty says there’s still room to grow further before putting up rates
- Switzerland cause a stir in Europe after passing immigration proposal
- Fed laying the smack down on overseas banks in the US
- Fed’s Gibson says Foreign bank rule not protectionist
The US session opened in promising fashion with currencies looking to build on good moves in the European session. The first knock came when the NY Empire state manufacturing turned sour. As it used as the first indication to gauge the bigger ISM data, the market didn’t like what it saw.
USD/JPY was knocked down 10 pips from 102.50 and was marked down further to 102.23 when the NAHB house market index disappointed also. The falls were tempered as bad weather was the main excuse once again. The US may be suffering a bout of extreme weather but that’s going to lead the market to expect a strong pick up when it’s over. After the data was done we sat in an 18 pip range for the remainder of the session.
EUR/USD launched itself as the US data came through rising from 1.3733 to a high of 1.3770. A short squeeze in EUR/JPY to 141.00 was partly the reason and the 55 dma at 141.01 put pay to further gains and both pairs drifted back by 20/25 pips.
GBP/USD never really shook of the mornings inflation data but mustered a 40 pip bounce from 1.6688 to 1.6728 on the figures then spent the remainder of the day falling back to 1.6680 where we finish the session.
It’s been pretty uninspiring stuff during this session but USD/CAD continues its fall from grace at 1.12 and is slowly chewing back down through support levels. 1.0940 is the one that stopped the rot for now and matches the low from the 14th Feb.
AUD/USD has finished with its pop and drop after the RBA minutes and closes out virtually to the tee where it finished yesterday at 0.9030.
Thank you very much for having me today and we’re back to a full house tomorrow. They’ll be no leisurely jaunt down the cafe for breakfast before work for me tomorrow. Back to cold porridge and cold tea.
