Forex news from the European morning session 9 April 2015

News:

  • Eurozone sets a 6-day deadline for Greek reforms
  • Varoufakis says the EU pointing a "moralizing" finger at Greece won't fix the crisis
  • Varoufakis says he's not in favour of any Grexit
  • Greece repays the EUR460m instalment to IMF
  • UK businesses reporting slower growth in Q1 2015
  • BOJ monthly economic report April: Japan's economy has continued its moderate recovery trend
  • French fin min Sapin sees strong job creation from 2016
  • Iran's Rouhani says they will never sign a final nuclear agreement until all sanctions lifted
  • Iran oil minister says crude markets are still over supplied
  • Option expiries 10am NY cut 9 April

Data:

  • UK visible trade balance Feb GBP -10.34bln vs -9bln exp
  • German trade balance Feb EUR +19.2bln vs +19.0 exp
  • German industrial production Feb sa mm +0.2% vs +0.1% exp
  • UK Halifax house prices March +0.4% vs +0.1% exp
  • Bank of France business sentiment index March 97 vs 98 exp
  • Greek unemployment rate Jan 25.7% 26.2% exp
  • Greek CPI yy -2.1% as expected
  • Nikkei 225 closes up +0.75% at 19,937.72

It's been another busy session with renewed USD demand but still one with commodity currencies feeling the love too

After a steady start we saw a quick drop in EURUSD to 1.0730 from 1.0780 and GBPUSD to 1.4810 from 1.4850 and then another knock on to 1.4765 from 1.4895 as UK trade data came in weaker than expected

EURGBP rallied to 0.7278 but we've since seen some solid GBP demand yet again in the dip to post 1.4830 and 0.7250

EURUSD meanwhile has rallied to 1.0780 as USD sellers return and knocked USDJPY to 119.94 from 120.30 and USDCHF to 0.9697 from 0.9727

CAD and AUD have enjoyed some commodity love again and avoided the USD-led sell we saw elsewhere with AUDUSD rising to 0.7739 after wiping its feet around 0.7700 and USDCAD down 1.2512 from 1.2580 helped by firmer oil prices

NZDUSD has also had a decent session rising to 0.7604 from 0.7550

A mixed and busy bag then, and one that offers few clues as we welcome our friends across the pond