Forex trading news and economic data headlines 14 March 2017
News:
- UK's Treasury Select Committee rules that BOE deputy governor Hogg misled them. Hogg resigns.
- Hogg resigns as BOE deputy
- BOE's Hogg will still be voting at Thursday's MPC meeting
- Pound drops sharply as Article 50 casts its shadow
- Trading Brexit? We're only just beginning
- Option expiries for the 10 am NY cut today 14 March
- Nikkei 225 closes down -0.12% at 19,609.50
Data:
- Le Pen gains on Macron in latest Opinionway poll
- USD demand prevails as European trading gets under way
- Germany Feb CPI mm final +0.6% as expected
- March 2017 German ZEW 77.3 vs 78 exp
- Eurozone Jan industrial production mm SA +0.9% vs +1.3% exp
- US Feb NFIB small business optimism 105.3 vs 105.6 exp
- Spain Feb CPI final mm -0.4% vs -0.3% exp
Here's all the headlines and summary for the NA early-birds.
It was a quiet Asian session with, as ever, no one really wanting to shake any apples from the tree, or indeed any low-hanging fruit even. Cue early-European trading and at 06.00 GMT someone, not for the first time, pressed the sell button on GBP pairs.
GBPJPY fell to 139.60 then 139.25 from 140.25 with USDJPY steady around 114.90 and cable testing 1.2150 from 1.2205 before falling through and accelerating a move to 8-week lows of 1.2125. EURGBP rallied to 0.8765 then 0.8785 from 0.8730. See our GBP posts above for further explanation.
That set the tone and with USDJPY gradually clawing its way higher to test 115.20 we saw general USD demand with EURUSD falling to 1.0630 and AUDUSD 0.7540. Large option expiries on the latter at 0.7545 have helped contain p/a since while cross plays have contained the former.
The resignation of BOE dep gov Hogg gave the pound another wobble but with the market already short on the day the damage was limited and cable found sup[port into 1.2100 while EURGBP is still finding it tough to break up through 0.8785 again.
USDCAD has nudged lower into 1.3430 support as oil prices initially firmed ( Update: USDCAD now higher again as OPEC report sends oil lower)
US PPI at 12.30 GMT (don't forget US/Canadian data all an hour earlier for 2 weeks til GMT changes to BST on 26 March
