Forex trading news and economic data headlines 6 February 2017
News:
- UK's May says government will not allow attempts to keep UK in EU
- Finland's Stubb says Brexit talks will be very complicated and messy
- 58% of UK firms say Brexit has had a negative effect on business
- "Mr Yen" Sakakibara says USDJPY could fall below 100 by end-2017
- The Fillon fights back
- German govt spokesperson declines to comment on US plans to roll back financial regulation
- EURUSD fails at 1.0800 again but the trend is your friend
- SNB's Maechler says they focus on overall FX situation, not just the euro
- Option expiries for the 10 am NY cut today 6 Feb
- Nikkei 225 closes up +0.31% at 18,976.71
Data:
- German Dec factory orders mm +5.2% vs +0.7% exp
- German Dec engineering orders down 15% yy in real terms
- Eurozone IFO Q1 business climate sentiment 17.2 vs 8.2 prev
- February 2017 Eurozone Sentix investor confidence index 17.4 vs 17.4 exp
- UK car registrations +2.9% in Jan y/y
- Germany Jan Markit construction PMI 52.0 vs 54.9 prev
A scrappy start to the week but one that's seen the euro lose a bit of ground, albeit all within recent ranges as the tight trading conditions continue.
USDJPY started off brightly enough as the Nikkei found some buyers into the close but the pair ran out of puff into offers at 112.80 and with that came the return of some yen demand and USDJPY retreating too. Calls by "Mr Yen" for the pair to fall below 100.00 by year-end
That in turn saw core pairs capped with GBPUSD initially leading the way with GBPJPY supply sending cable down to test 1.2450 and then EURUSD was happy to follow suit down to 1.0734. The euro pressure generally meant EURGBP falling below 0.8600 and that in turn pushed cable up to 1.2490 only to give up yet again.
The rest have been ranging too with little of note and no price or rhetoric of real consequence but plenty of hot air.
Commodities have generally remained bid while European equities have had a soggy start to the week with the DAX the biggest loser.
Draghi speaking at 14.00 GMT the scheduled risk event.
