Forex news from the European trading session - 26 April 2018
Economic data:
- Germany May GfK consumer confidence 10.8 vs 10.8 expected
- Spain Q1 unemployment rate 16.74% vs 16.20% expected
- UK Finance March mortgage approvals 37.57k vs 37.15k expected
- UK April CBI retailing reported sales -2 vs -3 expected
Headlines:
- Italy's Padoan says government sees GDP growth rising to 1.5% this year
- Riksbank's Ingves: Important that SEK doesn't strengthen too quickly
- Riksbank's Ingves says inflation still needs support from policy
- China's top oil refiners are planning Q2 maintenance, may impact oil demand
- Germany says want to achieve long-term delay for US steel tariffs
- Germany says government cannot influence current account surplus with the US
- EU's Barnier: 'Mechanical consequences' to follow leaving the single market
- Riksbank disappoints those hoping for a quicker tightening cycle
- More from Barnier: There are many Brexit topics where we still disagree
- China urges the US not to harm trade relations even further
- EU's Barnier says Brexit creates uncertainty for many people, sectors
- SNB maintains USD holdings at 35% q/q in Q1 2018
- SNB posts Q1 loss of CHF 6.8 billion
Markets:
- JPY leads, CHF lags behind on the day
- European equities mildly higher
- Gold down by 0.04% to $1,322.65
- WTI up by 0.38% to $68.31
- US 10-year yields down by 2.2 bps to 3.00%
- Bitcoin down by 2.47% to $8,848
The euphoria of US yields touching multi-year highs is starting to wear off as it seems that the end to the story has been rather anticlimactic. 10-year yields pivoted around the 3% level for most of the session, providing little enthusiasm for the dollar to extend gains from the past week.
The key currency to watch out for in the next few hours will be the euro as we have the ECB meeting coming up. The euro has been holding steady, trading in a 32 pips range against the dollar but a little higher on the day. EUR/USD is currently at 1.2175 spending most of the time in between 1.2160 to 1.2180 so far.
Cable was one of the more active pairs with sterling weakening a little when the dollar caught a bit of a bid. The pair fell to lows of 1.3895 but found bids just under 1.3900 and climbed back up to near 1.3950 currently.
USD/JPY continues to hug the lower end of the tight range today as yields fail to provide a catalyst for the next move higher in the pair - trading around 109.30 for the most part.
Other currencies saw mixed movements, with the kiwi leading losses earlier in the day before making a bit of a recovery now later in the session. NZD/USD was as low as 0.7056 at one point, but is now trading flat at 0.7069. Ranges remain tight for most pairs as we await the ECB meeting to kick some life into the market.
