Forex news and economic headlines 31 March 2016
News:
- BOJ'S Kuroda says they are not conducting monetary policy to underwrite government debt
- BOE's Carney says FSB is working to build a new type of financial system
- More from Carney: Basel committee agreements are not the beginning and end of risk management
- S&P downgrade China outlook to Negative from Stable
- It's the little things that matter for the pound
- UK's Osborne uses the GDP data to make a Brexit point
- Option expiries 10am NY cut today 31 March
- More option expiries of note coming up in the next week
- Nikkei 225 closes down -0.71% at 16,758.67
Data:
- Q4 2015 UK GDP final 0.6% vs 0.5% exp q/q
- March 2016 Eurozone HICP flash -0.1% vs -0.1% exp y/y
- France CPI March mm flash +0.7% vs +0.8% expected
- Spain CPI March mm flash +0.6% vs +0.7% expected
- UK Q4 current account balance -£32.7bln vs -£21.2bln expected
- Germany unemployment change March 0k vs -6k expected
- UK mortgage approvals Feb 73.9k vs 73.5k expected
- Italy HICP March flash mm +2.0% vs +2.2% expected
- Germany retail sales Feb mm -0.4% vs +0.4% expected
- China Q4 current account surplus $91.9bln vs Q3 surplus of $60.3bln
- Italy PPI Feb mm -0.4% vs -0.7% previously
- Spain current account balance Jan -€0.66bln vs +€4.5bln previously
- Japan construction orders Feb yy -12.4% vs -13.8% prev
Data city this morning but it's been month-end flows that have prevailed with the euro enjoying the best of it.
On Tuesday I highlighted the expected USD sales and it's playing out so far with more expected into, and at, the 15.00 GMT fix.
The euro has led the way with EURUSD marching up to 1.1383 and EURGBP posting 0.7915 before retreating as the pound found support from better final Q4 GDP and shrugging off awful current account data. Eurozone data has generally been positive for the euro and that has helped underpin all session.
GBPUSD had an early look at 1.4325 support from 1.4345 as EURGBP started its rise but the Q4 GDP had it testing 1.4400 from 1.4365 before posting highs of 1.4427.
USDJPY came down to 112.15 with the Nikkei falling into the close but large option expiries today at 112.00 appear to have provided some support along with yen-pair demand overall.
USDCAD has been on the back foot all session as oil prices rise and has dropped to 1.2925 as I type from 1.3010. Other commodity ccys have done well too and we've seen AUDUSD rise 0.7635 to test 0.7700 again while NZDUSD has remained underpinned and nudged higher to 0.6945 from 0.6890.
North American data to come includes US initial jobless claims and Canadian GDP with Fed heads Williams and Dudley also on the month-end menu.
