Forex trading headlines from the European morning session 3 Sept
News:
- Putin backs the idea of an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine – Obama responds
- Putin and Poroshenko agree on a ceasefire
- Ukraine’s Lysenko says border guards see increased Russian troop activity
- EU not waiting for ceasefire clarification as they work on sanctions
- ECB ready for further measures says ECB’s Liikanen
- ECB doesn’t necessarily oppose Euro bonds says ECB’s Lautenschlaeger
- Japan must consider fuel prices and weather for next sales tax decision says Abe
- Italy not planning any one-off measures to cut debt
- UK’s Shadow MPC votes for an interest rate hike
- Japan’s ex-MOF Watanabe says further yen weakness could be negative for Japanese industry
Data:
- August 2014 UK Markit/CIPS services PMI 60.5 vs 58.5 exp
- Eurozone retail sales July mm -0.4% vs -0.3% exp
- Eurozone Markit services PMI final 53.1 vs 53.5 exp
- German Markit services PMI final Aug 54.9 vs 56.4 exp
- French Markit services PMI final Aug 50.3 vs 51.1exp
- Italian Markit services PMI Aug 49.8 vs 52.0 exp
- Irish Markit services PMI Aug 62.4 vs 61.3 prev
- Irish unemployment continues falling in August
- Nikkei closes up +0.38% at 15,728.35
We’ve seen a few ups n downs this morning as talk of a Ukraine ceasefire got diluted into an agreement made in principle but no ceasefire as yet
While the confusion continues we’ve seen the euro ignore weaker PMI data then jump sharply on the initial ceasefire headlines with EURUSD posting 1.3157 from 1.3140, EURCHF to 1.2091 from 1.2078, EURGBP to 0.7986 from 0.7972 and EURJPY to 138.29 from 137.95 but all have faded since and it’s been tight ranging
GBPUSD had looked supported from the off and then had a bounce from 1.6475 t0 1.6498 helped by better services PMI but that pair too has faded since and posting session lows of 1.6460 as I type.
USDJPY faded from 105.08 as the Nikkei dipped into the close but found good support at 104.85 to bounce back above 105.10 but USDCHF has had a quieter morning around 0.9185 after its own ceasefire-led rally failed to get back above 0.9200
AUD and NZD have both enjoyed a decent morning as has CAD with a move lower to test bids around 1.0900 from earlier highs of 1.0940
A scrappy session but not without opportunity, for day traders at least