Forex trading headlines from the European morning session 17 April
News:
- French fin min Sapin says strong euro is bad for growth and jobs
- Putin says claims that Russian forces are present in east Ukraine are “rubbish”
- Putin says he very much hopes he will not have to use his right to engage military force in east Ukraine
- Japan’s Kuroda says BOJ will continue with monetary easing
- Putin says a military-political alliance with China is not on the agenda
- GBP trade-weighted index at the highest since Nov 2008
- Kuroda to avoid more easing says ex-BOJ official Sekido
- Japanese government cuts economic view
- Japan’s Nishimura says economy remains on firm footing after sales tax hike
- BOJ regional quarterly report keeps 8 out of 9 regions assessment unchanged
- PBOC looking to relax rules for foreign central banks in interbank bond market
- Guest Trader:Trading with one eye on the long weekend
Data:
- German producer prices March m/m -0.3 % vs 0.0% exp
- Japanese consumer confidence March 37.5 vs 38.3 prev
- Greek Feb current account deficit widens to -0.71bn from 0.30bn
- Nikkei closes flat at 14,417.53
- Shanghai Composite Index closes down 0.3% at 2098.88
A session that had ” holiday trading” stamped all over it but not one without opportunity again.
GBPUSD led the way with another move higher but failing ahead of the next round of offers at 1.6850 and we’ve seen it drift back to 1.6805.
With bids on EURGBP we saw EURUSD use this cable rally to leap frog over on a move higher of its own and we’ve taken out good offers at 1.3850 triggering stops to 1.3864 dragging EURGBP back up to 0.8244 from 0.8220.
USDJPY had a dip below 102.00 on a Nikkei fading into the close but the euro rally has given it some legs again with EURJPY up to 141.54 after holding 141.00 support. USDJPY has ground its way higher to 102.13
USDCAD has chewed its way higher again to 1.1018 from 1.0997 but offers noted nearby, while AUDUSD and NZDUSD have both found themselves somewhat on the back foot but going nowhere fast.
US weekly jobless claims the next data risk coming up but with many traders already on holiday we should expect some scrappy conditions.