Forex trading headlines for April 23, 2013:
- AP twitter account reports explosions at the White House after hack
- US April Markit manufacturing PMI 52 from 54.6 prior
- Richmond Fed April -6 vs +2 exp
- US March new home sales 417K vs 416K exp
- Lots of chatter about ECB rate cuts
- Italian President to announce decision on new government Wednesday
- Spanish PM says EU countries must accept to give up sovereignty
- S&P 500 up 1.05% to 1578
- Huge gains for European stocks
- USD leads, CHF lags
The fake twitter story caused 50-100 pip drops in the yen crosses and a 1% blip in the S&P 500. It was a messy couple of minutes while the details were sorted out and stops were hit in a panicky market.
Early in the day it was all about an ECB rate cut after the soft German PMI. European stocks and bonds rallied hard and that picked EUR/USD back above 1.3000 from a low of 1.2973.
USD/JPY is near 99.50 after falling to 98.59 on the flash crash. In European trading the low was 98.49. It’s a bit disconcerting that the pair can’t hit 100 even with risk trades rallying hard. If Japanese stocks continue the trend that could be the final push, or not.
Rumors of the SNB hiking the floor to 1.25 may have helped EUR/CHF but it’s hard to tell what came first, the rumor or the rally. There was no news to go along with the move but EUR/CHF is at 1.2285 — the highest in 5 weeks.
Gold down $12 to $1414 after touching $1433.