Forex headlines for April 24, 2014:
- US March durable goods orders +2.6% vs +2.0% expected
- Initial jobless claims 329K vs 315K expected
- ECB’s Coene: Low April inflation number might cause the ECB to act in May
- Poloz: Sectors representing over half of total exports are poised to heat up
- Poloz becoming more confident of business investment
- Russia starts military drills in response to Ukraine escalation
- UPS CEO says US and global growth ‘not robust’
- Ukraine anti-terror operations have been suspended – report
- Putin’s spokesman says Ukranian actions today ‘criminal’
- Yuan weakens to one-year low
- BOJ concerned bond market failing to reflect inflation
- Constancio says ECB looking at all options to tackle low inflation
- Denmark abandons negative deposit rates
- S&P 500 up 3 points to 1878
- WTI crude up 52 cents to $101.96
- Gold up $9 to $1293
- JPY leads, AUD lags
It was a choppy session but we end the day with less than 30 pip changes in the majors.
The initial move was toward US dollar strength after a solid durable goods orders report. USD/JPY crept up to 102.65 — a session high but that nearly matched recent highs and there was no appetite for further buying. The tide turned on Ukraine worries and it was a quick trip down to 102.08, a session low. Even though broader sentiment completely recovered, the pair never did and finished at 102.32.
EUR/USD slipped harder after durable goods orders, running stops down to 1.3792 from 1.3825. The ECB was happy to jump onboard as traders digested Draghi’s comments. Coene also put the focus on April inflation numbers due next week. Still, you can’t keep the euro down and it climbed all the way back to 1.3832.
Cable fell to 1.6766 but yesterday’s low held and it was right back up to 1.6801.
The volatility in the commodity bloc was nil, despite the choppy action in oil and gold. USD/CAD was climbing in USD strength but upbeat comments from Poloz sent the pair a few pips lower to 1.1021.