Forex trading headlines from the European morning 9 April
News:
- China’s NDRC says it will further enhance two-way fluctuation in yuan rate
- Russian foreign ministry says accusations that they are massing armed forces near Ukraine border are groundless
- EU’s Ashton to meet with US, Russian and Ukraine officials next week
- PBOC’s Zhou says they will remove unnecessary controls in reform
- German economic institutes raise German growth forecasts
- ECB’s Lautenschlaeger says banking union a big step forward
- Greece still turning the corner as industrial output rises for third straight month
- More good news for Greece as it looks to sell bonds on Thursday
- France’s Le Foll says strong euro is a “brake on exports”
- Spanish economy may be improving but property market is still a millstone around its neck
Data:
- German trade balance Feb EUR +15.7bln vs +17.18 exp
- February UK trade balance -9.09bn vs -9.2bn exp
- Portugese Dec-Feb trade balance y/y EUR -2.712 bln vs -2.379 bln prev
- Nikkei closes down 2.1% at 14,299.69
- Shanghai Composite Index closes up 0.33% at 2105.24
With the FOMC Minutes looming later traders have been reluctant to nail their colours to the mast with many still a little frazzled from the moves of the last 24 hours
USDJPY had moved up from its 101.80 lows as the Nikkei fared a little better into the close and we posted 102.14 but failed to hold above 102.10 despite further encouragement from the futures market.
Yen pairs had a similar journey with EURJPY rallying to 140.80 fr0m 140.45 dragging EURUSD above 1.3800 with it from 1.3787 but its been painfully slow again. Another rally as I type has seen 140.97 and 1.3805 respectively but EURUSD is struggling with a leap of faith above 1.3810
GBPUSD similarly has found making progress above 1.6755 a tad too much but has found solid support in the various dips around 1.6725-30 and spent most of the morning pinned to 1.6740. EURGBP likewise has taken the morning off at 0.8235-45
AUDUSD and NZDUSD have again looked perky above 0.9350 and 0.8675 but found a few sellers waiting in the rallies to 0.9380/0.8710 and USDCAD finds itself at 1.0940 pinned into a 1.0900-50 range
Little by way of data ahead of the Fed so we’ll have to see what else might stir it all up but the focus remains on that release and any pearls/scraps of wisdom it might reveal.
