Forex trading news and economic data headlines 7 March 2017
News:
- UK's May rules out calling an early election
- BOE's Hogg says she takes full responsibility for oversight on declaring family connections
- GBPUSD breaks 1.2200 as we head back to the House of Lords
- Opinionway French election poll sees Macron/Le pen unchanged for the 2nd round
- Moody's says likelihood of Eurozone break-up other than Greece remains very low
- PBOC's Zhou says China will not allow radical fluctuation of yuan exchange rate
- PBOC confirms it carried out MLF operations today at unchanged rates
- China forex reserves end-Feb USD 3.005trln vs USD 2.998trln prev
- Switzerland foreign reserves end-Feb CHF 668.18bln vs 643.94
- Australia foreign reserves Feb AUD 66.8bln vs 68.6bln prev
- Majors are playing second fiddle to the crosses
- Option expiries for the 10 am NY cut today 7 March
- Nikkei 225 closes down -0.18% at 19,344.15
Data:
- Q4 2016 Eurozone GDP revision 0.4% vs 0.4% exp q/q
- Germany January factory orders mm -7.4% vs -2.5% exp
- UK Halifax Feb house price index mm +0.1% vs +0.4% exp
- France January YTD budget balance EUR -5.4bln vs -69.0bln prev
- Italy January PPI mm +1.1% vs +0.6% prev
A quiet session overall but not one without opportunity.
USDJPY began around 113.85 and after one dip into 113.70 we saw a steady rise to 114.06 as USD demand generally prevailed. That tone saw GBPUSD dip into 1.2200 from 1.2235 then further to 1.2183 as EURGBP demand and GBPJPY supply cast their shadow with those pairs rising to 0.8680 from 0.8645 and falling from 139.55 to 138.79 respectively.
EURUSD meanwhile was in slow retreat from 1.0600 to 1.0558, AUDUSD down to 0.7585 from 0.7615, while USDCHF held above 1.0100 to post 1.0156 with EURCHF testing 1.0730. USDCAD gains above 1.3400 have been tempered by firmer oil prices.
US trade data at 13.30 and Canadian Ivey PMI at 15.00 the release risks ahead but focus remains on all things political.
