Forex news for US trading on Sept 21, 2016
Fed:
- FOMC leaves interest rates unchanged, three members dissent
- Yellen Q&A: Weak GDP forecasts reflect poor productivity
- Yellen Q&A: We're generally pleased with how the economy is doing
- Yellen opening statement: Most measures of labor market slack haven't improved this year
- A comparison of the FOMC statements from July and September
- FOMC Central tendencies and dot plot of rate expectations
- The FOMC Policy Statement for September 2016
- Bill Gross: Fed has given a lot of confusing signals
News:
- SEC charges hedge fund titan Leon Cooperman with insider trading
- US EIA weekly oil inventories -6200K vs +3250K expected
- BOJ action will help Japan exit deflation says Abe
- UAE oil minister says don't expect a decision at OPEC meeting
- Caterpillar numbers highlight the resource slump
Markets:
- JPY leads, USD lags
- S&P 500 up 23 points to 2163
- Nasdaq closes at record high
- Gold up $21 to $1336
- WTI crude up $1.57 to $45.62
- US 10-year yields down 4 bps to 1.65%, 2s flat
Yellen set a low bar for a hike before year end, essentially saying that around 150K jobs per month and avoiding some kind of crisis would be enough.
Yet that wasn't enough for the dollar bulls, at least not today. It was choppy but EUR/USD ended 40 pips higher to 1.1190 after trying both up and down a few times on the Fed decision.
Cable was all over the place after the Fed. Down to 1.2950 initially, then up to 1.3040, all the way back down 30 minutes later and then up to finish at 1.3031.
Commodity currencies certainly took advantage of the Fed and the positive risk environment. USD/CAD also benefitted from a rally in oil on the inventory numbers as the pair dropped to 1.3100 from 1.3225 at the highs.
AUD/USD also finished near the best levels at 0.7625 despite touching 75 pips lower after the Fed.
USD/JPY was a different story as yen longs were relentless after the BOJ. From 102.50 in Asia, the pair slowly slide. Bounces were modest and the pair grinded down to 100.30. The pair didn't fall as far as others after the Fed but that was partly due to positive sentiment.