Forex news and trading headlines 19 December 2016
News:
- German IFO says US interest rate decision having indirect impact on sentiment
- IFO's Fuest says ECB rates may be too low for Eurozone
- PBOC adviser sees China 2017 M2 rising up to 12%
- GBPJPY seller sends core pairs lower
- Option expiries for the 10 am NY cut today 19 Dec
- Nikkei 225 closes down -0.05% at 19,391.60
Data:
- Germany December IFO business climate 111.0 vs 110.6 exp
- Eurozone Q3 labour costs yy 1.5% vs 1.0% prev
A session that signalled the run-in to the Xmas holidays started quietly but there has been opportunity for those interested in some intra-day trading.
USDJPY survived an early test of 117.00 only to bounce back and look at the resistance between 117.50-60 and that rally saw GBPUSD cap around 1.2500 again with EURUSD struggling to hold above 1.0470 despite some better IFO headline data albeit with muted expectations.
Since then we've seen yen demand prevail and with additional impetus from a large GBPJPY sell order kicking in later in the session we've seen GBPUSD down to 1.2411 and EURUSD 1.0425. AUDUSD has fallen back to 0.7260 having failed to breach 0.7300 as AUDJPY selling set the tone.
USDJPY has been back down to 117.19 before recovering some poise with USDCHF underpinned below 1.0250.
USDCAD has also found itself on the rise to 1.3370 from 1.3330 on general USD demand, CADJPY sales and also with oil tipping lower from an early rise.
Oil and equities have been steady by and large, the former heading a little higher to begin with only to retreat while the latter started on the back foot but recovered some poise. Monte dei Paschi has had a wobble on the first day of their cash call.
Not a lot on the data horizon but Yellen is up to the rostrum at the Uni of Baltimore at 18.30 GMT
