Forex trading news and economic data headlines 7 April 2017
News:
- Kremlin says Syrian strikes do significant damage to US-Russia ties
- Russia's Lavrov says US strikes on air base are an act of aggression
- Russia will call for urgent UN Security Council meeting after US attack on Syria
- RIA: Russia, US militaries may halt cooperation in Syria
- Abe says Japan supports US actions in Syria
- UK government says it fully supports the US military action in Syria
- BOE's Carney sees gradual withdrawal of stimulus over several years
- BOE's Carney says new UK-EU template could be applied more broadly to global economy
- Eurogroup's Dijsselbloem says there won't be a total political deal on Greece today
- Eurogroup's Dijsselbloem says there is agreement on overarching elements of reforms in Greece
- Japan's Hamada says current yen level not "extremely strong"
- BOJ survey shows households expect inflation to rise to 2% in one year
- China forex reserves end-March USD 3.009trln vs USD 3.005trln prev
- Switzerland March foreign currency reserves CHF 683.2bln vs 674.0bln exp
- Gold comes back down toward key technical support after run higher.
- Option expiries for the 10 am NY cut today 7 April
- Nikkei 225 closes up +0.36% at 18,664.63
- A long march for very good causes
Data:
- UK February industrial production mm -0.7% vs +0.2% exp
- UK February visible trade balance GBP -12.46bln vs -10.9bln exp
- UK Halifax March house price index mm +0.0% vs +0.2% exp
- Germany February trade balance EUR 19.9bln vs 17.7bln exp
- France February trade balance EUR -6.57bln vs -4.9bln exp
- Switzerland March unemployment rate SA 3.3% as expected
- Japan February leading index CI flash 104.4 vs 104.6 exp
It's been a rather anti-climatic session given the US air strikes on Syria that happened in the Asian market time zone.
The initial safe-haven rise in gold/oil/yen/chf had been rather quickly wiped out and European desks joined the fray with ccy pairs and commodities caught in the headlights somewhat. What happened in Syria is just part of the mix right now with NFPs and on-going Trump/Xi also in focus.
USDJPY has done little of note spending most of the session between 110.45-65 after 110.11 lows in Asia. Similarly yen pairs have also been tightly bound. EURUSD had a quick look above 1.0650 early on but then has nudged down to test recent lows around 1.0630.
It's the pound though that has caught the spotlight again with dovish Carney comments adding to soggy UK production data. GBPUSD has fallen through support around 1.2420 to post 1.2413 while EURGBP has been up to 0.8569. GBPJPY had a earlier Syria-related dip then bounce only to fall back to test recent lows around 137.30.
AUDUSD , NZDUSD and USDCAD have all traded tightly with commodity ccys at the behest of of the initially better bid price action only to retreat.
Attention now turns to NFPs but the Syrian story and Trump/Xi could take precedence at any time.
