Forex news for February 13, 2017

Markets:

  • Gold down $6.60 to $1228
  • WTI down $1.13 to $52.88
  • S&P 500 up 12 points to record 2327
  • US 10-year yields up 2.5 bps to 2.43%
  • GBP leads, EUR lags

It's going to be a busy week with CPI, retail sales and Yellen on the US docket but it was all about politics to start the week, not economic data. The calendar was light so the focus was on Canadian PM Trudeau's trip to Washington.

Trump rarely talked about Canada so it was reassuring to CAD when he said he only wanted to 'tweak' rules between the countries and he touted making it easier to move goods across the border. USD/CAD fell to a session low of 1.3055 during the press conference. That's down from 1.3110 at the start of US trading and despite a fall in oil prices.

The euro slumped throughout European trading in a long slide to 1.5090 from 1.0640. That was part of a general USD climb at first but later in the day the dollar sagged and the euro stayed at the bottom of the day's range.

Cable slide down to 1.2480 on some fixing sales but recovered back to 1.2525 late in the day. That's a good sign for the GBP bulls as Brexit headlines and worries ebb.

USD/JPY was a winner on the day after Abe put the charm offensive on Trump. The pair struggled to hold over 114.00, however, and slipped to 113.65 late.