Forex news from European trading - 21 December 2017
Economic data:
- Japan Nov supermarket sales y/y -0.6% vs -1.9% prior
- Switzerland Nov trade balance CHF 2.63bn vs CHF 2.33bn prior
- France Dec business confidence 112 vs 111 expected
- UK Nov public sector net borrowing £8.1 bn vs £8.9 bn expected
Central banks/Government:
- All your BOJ governor Kuroda comments from today in one place
- SNB buys majority stake in Landqart AG
- SNB's Jordan: To provide CHF 5-15 million liquidity to Landqart
- ECB's Vasiliauskas: Discussion about QE end will continue in 2018
- UK PM spokesman: Does not expect replacement for Green to be announced on Thursday
- UK govt update on the next parliamentary debate on Brexit: 16 and 17 Jan
- OPEC starts working on oil supply cut exit strategy
- Japan's cabinet office: Economy is in moderate recovery
Others:
- FX option expiries for the 10am NY cut - 21 Dec 2017
- A million dollar bet that Bitcoin will reach $50,000
- What does Bitcoin, tech stocks, and Chinese politics have in common?
- North Korea one of the suspects in latest Bitcoin heist
- Victorian police says car incident at Melbourne CBD not terror related
- Car which hit Melbourne pedestrians a deliberate act - Australian police
- Wall Street more cautious over tech stocks for 2018
Markets:
- AUD leads the way so far, NZD the laggard
- European equities having a mixed session - mildly lower now
- Gold is down 0.05% to $1,264.98
- WTI crude is down 0.19% to $57.98
- US 10-year yields down 1bps to 2.48%
- Bitcoin higher by $2.46% on the day to $16,609
The first half of the trading session was rather quiet as major pairs ranged within 20 pips of each other mostly. The second half saw more extension of that range but they've pretty much fallen back in line again.
There weren't much news on the day. BOJ Kuroda's press conference was a dull one as he reiterated that the BOJ will maintain current policy framework as the current YCC is appropriate given economic conditions.
Then, there was news that the SNB decided to save their banknote supplier - by acquiring a 90/10 stake in the company: Landqart AG. Apart from that, nothing too notable.
AUD and CAD are the leaders on the day, but they didn't do much - virtually unchanged against the USD. Meanwhile, EUR/USD raced up to highs of 1.1890 early in the session before giving back those gains in good two-way trading; it's now at 1.1863. The range for the pair is only at 27 pips today.
GBP/USD had a good run to highs of 1.3387 in the middle of the session but found it difficult to break through the 50.0 retracement level that I pointed out here at 1.3384. The pair is back down now to 1.3367.
USD/JPY remains highly tied to US 10-year yields. An early run up in yields saw it hit 2.50% and USD/JPY hit highs of 113.64 but a retracement in 10-year yields saw it fall to 2.48% dragging USD/JPY along with it to now 113.56.
USD/CHF is currently near session highs of 0.9889 - as a break in EUR/CHF to the topside up to 1.1737 is helping to keep the swissie lower.
Lastly, the NZD is the weakest pair on the major bloc today despite a good move up after GDP numbers in the Asian session. The pair continues to be sold off against the AUD and USD - which is helping to cap any gains. Currently NZD/USD is at 0.7001 after encountering sellers near 0.7020.
