Forex news from the European morning session 3 February 2015
News:
- BOE’s Kohn says situation with Greece and Eurozone is “risky”
- BOE’s Taylor says a deal on Greece will not solve the underlying Eurozone problems
- More from Kohn: Eurozone needs more expansionary monetary and fiscal policy
- France’s Sapin says there is no contagion risk from Greece
- German engineering orders rise by 13% in Dec yy
- Where now for AUD after the rate cut?
- Option expiries 10am NY cut 3 Feb
Data:
- January 2015 UK Markit/CIPS construction PMI 59.1 vs 57.0 exp
- December 2014 eurozone PPI -1.0% vs -0.7% exp m/m
- January 2015 Italian HICP -0.4% vs -0.4% exp y/y
- Swiss trade balance Dec CHF +1.52bln vs 2.1bln exp
- Spanish jobless rises 1.75% in Jan
- Nikkei closes down -1.27% at 17,335.85
- Shanghai Composite Index closes up +2.4% at 3204.91
It’s been a strange kind of morning that has presented a fair amount of opportunity but almost in slo-mo
USDJPY intitially felt discinclined to rally very far back through 117.00 as the Nikkei staged a late rally but then chewed its way higher as other pairs found a bid and yen pairs started to rise. High post so far 117.54 after failling from 117.71 in Asia
AUDUSD had another kicking down to 5 1/2-year lows of 0.7626 as Europe came in but found buyers down there and we’ve chewed back up to 0.7684 before running into sellers again.
GBPUSD had an early test below 1.5000 to post 1.4988 but was soon back at 1.5020 only to try again but stronger construction PMI saw a quick rally back and then, like USDJPY, just chewed its way higher as traders covered their shorts. High so far 1.5081
EURUSD too had an early wobble but found bids into 1.1300 and we’ve trawled a path back up to 1.1358. EURYEN adding support but EURAUD selling providing offers
Oil has continued to rally and we’ve seen WTI post $51.55 and $Brent 57.23 before falling back but not before sending USDCAD down to 1.2530 from 1.2640 but we’ve seen a bounce back to 1.2570 as I type
NZDUSD also had a dip to 0.9175 then crawled around 0.9195 for a while before a rally to 0.7225 and then retereating like its antipodean neighbour.
Definitely opportunities for the intra-day traders but not offering too many clues on the bigger picture
