Calm European session as market sits tight
- Is Corbyn holding out for a general election? Referendum now 42% probability
- Boris Johnson and Theresa May on the wires
- IEA keeps demand for oil unchanged this year
- US oil breaks away from 50 EMA
- Where the main Conservative parties stand on Brexit
- Weaker sales to weigh on BOE's rate hike post Brexit
- GBPUSD technical recap as 1 hour candle closes
- GBPUSD price returns to mother candle of Jan 15
- UK December Retail Sales m/m -0.9%% vs -0.8% m/m expected
- Brexit direction, draw breath and look forward
- GBPUSD breaking through pivot point on hourly chart
- Stoxx 600 may finish with best month in 2 years, now up 0.7%
- European Equities open up as positive mood takes Europe
- GBP and JPY the weakest currencies at present
- EURCHF heads into 100 EMA on Daily chart
- Switzerland December producer import prices -0.6% mm vs -0.1% expected
- Trade ideas thread - European session 18 January 2019
- GBP/USD heading into a natural pause zone
- It takes two to tango, so why won't Corbyn dance?
- Nikkei unofficially closes up 1.29% at 20,666.07
- BOJ's Kuroda: Expect US-China trade war to be resolved this year
- ANZ research see a bearish monthly outlook for AUD
Markets
- FTSE 100 +1.51%
- Dax +1.56%
- CAC 40 +1.57%
- S&P500 futures +0.33%
- Copper +0.37% 5992.00
The market opened the session on positive risk tones after the rumours that the US was considering dropping China tariffs. These rumours were denied, but the market reasoned that where there is smoke, there is fire. Fair enough. The Nikkei closed up 1.29% at 20,666.07 and those risk on tones have stayed throughout the European session with large gains across the European shares indices.
The main data release for the session was the UK retail sales data which, despite being a weak reading, sent the GBP higher. Tough time for UK retailers and I do hate the fact that Amazon have really found a way to drive down prices that really hurts many retailers. The competition for the Amazon buy box, forces some to sell for a loss just to keep the sales coming in. Annoying. Anyway, that's my rant over, so why the pop in the GBP after the weak sales data? Yes, you guessed it a Brexit headline came out just prior to the release. It was UKIP's former leader, Nigel Farage , saying that he saw the UK heading to a second referendum. He may well be right.
The weakest currency was the GBP, as it pulled away from the key technical 200 EMA level. The strongest was the Canadian dollar enjoying a gentle bid from oil prices supported by the IEA report during the session. There was plenty of Brexit related headlines, but nothing should happen now until Monday when plan B hits the UK parliament. Oh, boy, here we go again. Incidentally it seems that the UK now has a 42% chance of having a second referendum. Fair odds, I'd say, although for me the takeaway is that a no-deal brexit is only seen as being a 10% probability.
