- IG Metall agree 3% wage hike deal with AGV Stahl
- UK Halifax house price index m/m+0.5% vs +0.2% exp/-0.2% prev. y/y +1.9% vs 1.7% exp/1.3% prev
- Eurozone Q4 GDP 2nd reading m/m -0.6% vs -0.6% exp/-0.6% prev. y/y -0.9% vs -0.9% exp/-0.9% prev
- Spanish Trsy Min Montoro says any revision to the 6.7% budget deficit figure will be downward
- BOE Governor King appears before Banking Standards Committee for last time but offers little new of note.
- Cable falls to test the strength of bids at 1.5050. Drags EURGBP up to test 0.8650 resistance
- EURCHF rises to 1.2322 after good demand around 0.9400 in USDCHF
- EURUSD buoyed by euro buying elsewhere climbs to test sell orders again at 1.3075-80 then falls back
A very quiet session for news but still a little bit of price action in euro pairs and cable to give us something to trade.
Cable had a weaker tone to it all morning having failed to hold yesterday’s gains above 1.5150. With the BOE decision tomorrow it was time to book a bit of profit and this move lower acclerated with stop-loss selling being triggered through 1.5100. We had earlier reported strong demand on the order books at 1.5050 and so it proved with the pair stalling at 1.5064 and rebounding to 1.5105 only to fall back as the sellers returned.
GBP weakness was exacerbated by a move higher in EURGBP from 0.8620 to 0.8650 only to run into sell orders but it still looks underpinned after the move lower yesterday to test strong support around 0.8590. The EURGBP support was in turn provided by some strong real money buying USDCHF around 0.9400 which gave EURCHF a sharp lift to 1.2322 before falling back to 1.2302 currently.
This euro demand naturally gave EURUSD a boost and we rose to test the 1.3075-80 again where we have been reporting good size sell orders this week.
UK house price data came in better than expected but had no impact while the Eurozone q4 gdp 2nd reading was unchanged as expected.
Yen pairs were dragged around by the euro with EURJPY testing good resistance/sell orders between 122.00-10 before retreating in line with the other euro crosses. buyers on the dips still so far.
Other news included Germany’s IG Metall trade union agreeing a 3% wage hike agreement wih AVG Stahl for the western germany steel industry. It’s a 15 month contract for 75,000 steel workers. IG orignally demanded 5.5% and a 12 month contract so it can be seen as a compromise but with inflation at 2% still not a bad deal.
And BOE governor King appeared for the last time before the parliamentary Banking Standards committee where he offered little new on the subject of leverage and regulation.
As we head into the US session traders remain somewhat jittery ahead of tomorrow’s key BOE and ECB decisions, with the NFP’s not far behind on Friday.
