Forex news and economic data headlines for the European session 23 May 2016
News:
- Former adviser to UK PM Cameron says membership of the EU makes Britain "literally ungovernable"
- UK's Treasury: Brexit could cause the pound index to fall 12-15%
- FTSE 350 companies concerned about UK economy, and it's not because of Brexit
- JP Morgan looking for a 0.5% rate cut in UK if Leave vote prevails
- Mind the gap when trading Brexit
- ECB's Praet says they are absolutely determined to avoid deflation
- We've done enough says ECB's Bonnici
- Fed's Bullard: Signs show the US is growing below trend pace of 2%
- Gold's a buy if the Fed hikes
- Moody's says revenues in China will continue rising due to stabilization in real estate market
- Chinese crude oil imports from Russia hit record highs on a daily basis in April
- EURUSD remains near the lows as corps do the selling
- USDJPY pops 109.50 support as yen demand returns
- Option expiries 10 am NY cut today 23 May
- More option expiries of note this week 24-27 May
Data:
- Eurozone Markit manufacturing PMI May flash 51.5 vs 51.9 exp
- Germany Markit/BME manufacturing PMI May flash 52.4 vs 52.0 exp
- France Markit manufacturing PMI May flash 48.3 vs 49.0 exp
- Switzerland M3 money supply April yy +2.3% vs +1.7% prev
- Japan leading index CI March final 99.3 vs 98.4% prev
- Japan all industry activity index March mm +0.1% vs +0.5% exp
- Japan supermarket sales April yy -0.7% vs -0.3% prev
Not that it's ever been too far away from the headlines in recent weeks/months but there's been a fresh wave of Brexit-based stories/scaremongering this morning. The pound has duly had another wobble and yen demand has added to the pain.
USDJPY opened steady around 109.85 but the failure to hold above 110.00 in Asia had encouraged a few sellers and with European equities opening lower it wasn't long before yen demand spread to other pairs adding to downward pressure across the board.
GBPJPY had found a solid cap at 159.60 and needed little encouragement to head lower as Brexit headlines spewed out and none of them painting a pretty picture. GBPUSD turned down through 1.4500 again only to rally as euro pressure on weak data/rhetoric sent EURGBP lower after its own early rally above 0.7750.
Good res/offers into 1.4550 though were enough to cap cable and we've since been on a one-ticket to 1.4562 with GBPJPY posting 158.28 and EURGBP climbing back up through 0.7745 as EURUSD found support again 1.1200 having dropped from 1.1242.
USDCHF and EURCHF have also found themselves on the back foot on a softer euro/safe-haven combo with the latter pair dropping back down through 1.1100 capping USDCHF above 0.9900.
Elsewhere USDCAD has remained underpinned above 1.3100 as oil wobbles again while AUDUSD has retreated back into 0.7200 as AUDJPY dropped to 78.84. Similarly NZDUSD has been on pedalling backwards as NZDYEN sellers prevail.
Thin data calendar to come but we do have US mftg PMI at 13.45 GMT
