Forex news and economic trading headlines 9 August 2016
News:
- EURGBP sellers help put a line under GBPUSD again
- Reserve Bank of India keeps repo rate on hold at 6.50%
- Option expiries 10 am NY cut today 9 August
- More option expiries of note this week
- Nikkei 225 closes up +0.69% at 16,764.97
Data:
- UK visible trade balance June -GBP 12.409 bln vs -10.075 bln exp
- UK industrial production June mm +0.1 % vs +0.1% exp
- Germany trade balance June +EUR 24.9bln vs 23.0bln exp
- France budget deficit June YTD -€61.8bln vs -€65.7bln
- US NFIB small business optimism July 94.6 vs 94.5 exp
- Japan machine tool orders July yy flash -19.6% vs -19.9% prev
It's not been the most rip-roaring of sessions given the Summer malaise but that's not stopped the pound providing some good opportunities again.
It was a session that began with GBP supply in the aftermath of the McCafferty comments but with lack of follow-through we saw some demand return only to wane once again on softer headline UK trade and production data.
Closer inspection though saw decent enough pre-Brexit import and ind production levels and that gave a nudge back higher with GBPUSD finally taking out 1.3000 offers/res to trigger stops to 1.3014. It wasn't long though before it was business as usual and we made our way back to 1.2970 then new lows of 1.2963 as EURGBP tested 0.8550.
Meanwhile we were witnessing some generally USD-neg sentiment that saw EURUSD and AUDUSD both posting higher than Asian highs of 1.1091 and 0.7665. USDJPY has retreated to 102.16 after failing around 102.50.
Oil has had a solid morning with Brent rising from $44.80 to $45.58 and WTI from $42.50 to $43.28 and that's sent USDCAD down to 1.3147 from 1.3188.
US Q2 NF productivity and labour costs along with Canadian housing starts are the data highlights later with the latest NIESR UK GDP estimate to also throw in the mix.
Very sluggish overall but there's pips to be had for those keen enough.
