Forex news for March 12, 2015 US edition:
- February 2015 US retail sales -0.6% vs +0.3% exp m/m
- US Initial jobless claims 289K vs 305K estimate
- BOE's Carney says he's in no rush to raise rate
- Carney says UK economy has a solid expansion
- January 2015 US business inventories 0.0% vs +0.1% exp m/m
- US Feb budget deficit $192.3B vs $191.0B expected
- US import price index for February rises by 0.4% vs. 0.2% estimate
- February 2015 Canadian Terranet/National bank HPI +0.1% vs -0.1% exp m/m
- Latest Reuters poll gets bullish on eurozone growth
- Greece's Tsipras confirms reform agreement with OECD
- US 30-year bonds sell at 2.681% vs 2.665% WI
- Bundesbank has bought €2.1bn in German bonds
- ECB's Coeure says Eurozone growth potential 'severely' hurt by crisis
- ECB's Nowotny says lower euro has a positive effect on exports
- Gold down $2 to $1153
- WTI down $1.10 to $47.09
- S&P 500 up 26 points to 2066
- AUD leads, GBP lags
It was a retracement/bounce day as the US dollar gave back some of its recent gains, especially against AUD and NZD but the secondary story was how cable wasn't able to join in on the fun.
GBP/USD began to struggle at the start of US trading with the comments from Carney. It traded as high as 1.5027 in a brief spike higher and then slowly sank down to yesterday's low at 1.4893. After that gave way it was a run on stops down to 1.4850. The big level to watch is 1.4814, which was the 2013 low. Look for major stops below.
The euro finally posted a decent bounce but it ends the day near 75 pips. Given the magnitude of the fall, that's a small retracement and won't convince anyone that it's not another bounce to sell. The market did just that on a brief pop to 1.0684 on the soft US retail sales data but within an hour it was back below 1.0600 before chopping to 1.0622 late.
USD/JPY similarly posted a turnaround as the market brushed off the retail sales numbers. It's yet another sign that an endless appetite for dollar buying is lurking in the weeds. From a spike down to 120.66, the market climbed all the way back 121.34 and the buying was more-or-less relentless.
One spot the US dollar had a bit less lock was against the kiwi. Yesterday's RBNZ decision turned out to be a great place to buy and NZD extended to more than 200 pips above yesterday's pre-announcement level. Even a bit of USD strength lately has been reversed with NZD/USD finishing near 0.7400.
Similar story in AUD. The rally started on good jobs numbers but at first it wasn't the most inspiring rally but after the BOK cut rates it gathered some momentum. Last at 0.7706.
