Forex trading news and economic data headlines 6 March 2017
News:
- Euro suffers as Juppe rules himself out of French elections
- Latest Opinionway French poll shows Macron/Le Pen at 60/40% in the 2nd
- Hubbard says he's not in talks with Trump's team for US Fed job
- Trump to sign a new travel ban executive order today- Reuters
- Greek reforms are coming up roses as GDP plummets
- SNB reports a 2016 final profit of CHF 24.5bln vs CHF 23.3bln loss in 2015
- BIS say politics has tightened its grip on financial markets
- China has kept yuan basically stable at reasonable and balanced level - PBOC
- Amari says US and Japan should not meddle in each other's fiscal and monetary policies
- US and Japan to have trade talks over the phone today
- Irish central bank to crack down on retail FX and CFD offerings - Finance Magnates
- Germany's BDB says Eurozone upswing means that ultra-loose ECB policy is no longer necessary
- Option expiries for the 10 am NY cut today 6 March
- Nikkei 225 closes down -0.46% at 19,379.14
Data:
- February 2017 Eurozone retail PMI slips into contraction
- Germany Markit February construction PMI 54.1 vs 52.0 prev
- March 2017 Eurozone Sentix index 20.7 vs 18.5 exp
- German January engineering orders +9% yy in real terms
The euro started off in fine form but then news of Juppe not being interested in standing for President pricked the bubble somewhat.
Cue a slide across the board for the euro which had previously enjoyed broad gains with EURGBP leading the way up to 0.8670 from 0.8628. EURUSD pushed up from 1.0600 to 1.0640 in a rush with large option expiries around 1.0630 in the frame. Since the Juppe news though we've been back to 0.8628 and 1.0577 with EURJPY also falling to 120.35 with yen demand prevailing generally capping USDJPY gains above 113.85 after an early look into 113.55
GBPUSD meanwhile had been capped again by the EURGBP demand but made little progress as that trade was unwound with GBPJPY supply adding weight.
Elsewhere AUDUSD had a look above 0.7600 but general USD demand has seen it give up back to 0.7588. USDCAD simil;arly gave up gains above 1.3410 to retreat to 1.3375 only to find fresh demand around that key area. NZDUSD ran out of puff into 0.7050 and fell back to 0.7020
Equities, oil and gold have all had a soggy morning adding a general risk-off sentiment as markets continue to focus on all things political and second-guessing the Fed.
US factory orders at 15.00 GMT the only data risk of note but we'll be keeping an eye out for news bombs as ever.
