Forex news for US trading May 20, 2015:

  • FOMC Minutes: Many Fed officials thought economy unlikely strong enough for June rate rise
  • Hilsenrath on the minutes: Fed staff revised growth outlook higher
  • Banks fined €5.8bn over FX manipulation
  • BOJ to consider raising growth outlook today - Nikkei
  • US EIA crude oil inventories -2674K vs -1750K exp
  • March 2015 Canadian wholesale trade sales 0.8% vs 0.9% exp m/m
  • Schaeuble going back on Greek default assurance - WSJ
  • ECB raises Greek banks ELA ceiling by 200 M to 80.2B
  • Greek cash reserves stood at €796.5m at end of March
  • Gold up $2.50 to $1210
  • WTI crude up 76-cents to $58.73
  • US 10-year yields down 3 bps to 2.26%
  • S&P 500 down 2 points to 2125
  • CAD leads, JPY lags

The day built up toward the FOMC minutes but -- as is so often the case -- the minutes were revealed to be an old, wishy-washy report that didn't tell us anything new about where the Fed was going.

The initial reaction was US dollar weakness on headlines about no June hikes but it didn't last and the dollar returned to pre-minutes levels in the next two hours. Fischer and Yellen speak in the next two days.

EUR/USD had a day of consolidation after a 50-pip decline in Asia. The European range was 1.1062 to 1.1153 and US traders tried both sides but never broke out. Last at 1.1100.

USD/JPY stumbled to 120.75 early in US trading and then caught a solid bid for the next few hours, climbing to 121.40 as signs of a tentative breakout mount. The minutes caused a stumble back below 120.00 but the pair has recovered to 120.30. It's the fifth day of gains for the pair.

Cable consolidated around 1.5530 after three days of sizeable declines. The BOE wasn't a driving factor with most of the moves tracking broad dollar sentiment.

USD/CAD broke a streak of four consecutive gains with a modest drop. I think some of the move is simply payback after the CAD rout on a holiday on Monday. A rebound in oil helped.

AUD/USD remains in the doldrums. After the fifth day of declines, traders are eying the May 8 low 0.7863 as support.