Forex news from the European morning session 2 Mar
News:
- Can you 'book' yourself a place in the ForexLive Non farm payrolls hall of fame?
- BOJ's Nakaso says they will find ways for additional easing if needed
- More from Nakaso: BOJ designed negative rates so they can go lower
- Nigeria says OPEC and non-OPEC producers will meet 20th March
- Greece's Tsakalotos says they're highly concerned by the IMF's stalling
- Major hedge funds yet to make their Brexit play
- Expectations rise for increase in ECB QE - Reuters poll
- Pound finds good demand despite weaker PMI data
- Option expiries 10am NY cut today 3 March
- More option expiries of note in the days ahead
- Nikkei 225 closes up +1.28% at 16,960.16
Data:
- February 2016 UK Markit/CIPS services PMI 52.7 vs 55.1 exp
- January 2016 Eurozone retail sales 0.4% vs 0.1% exp m/m
- Eurozone Markit services PMI Feb final 53.3 vs 53.0 exp
- Germany Markit services PMI Feb final 55.3 vs 55.1 exp
- France Markit services PMI Feb final 49.2 vs 49.8 exp
- Italy Markit/ADACI services PMI Feb 53.8 vs 52.8 exp
- French ILO Q4 unemployment rate 10.3% vs 10.5% exp
- UK Nationwide HPI Feb mm +0.3% vs +0.4% exp
- UK Halifax HPI Feb -1.4% vs 0.0% exp
- Spain Markit services PMI Feb 54.1 vs 54.0 exp
It's all relative of course but the euro has found some support today as markets turn to consolidation mode ahead of the key US jobs data tomorrow.
USDJPY found some early support from firmer equities providing risk-on sentiment but once again it ran into good sell interest above 114.20 and retreated to test 113.80 demand. Yen pairs saw similar moves.
An initial move lower in EURGBP to 0.7705 saw cable up through 1.4100 but then we saw some solid selling into the UK services PMI data. We were sitting around 1.4050 when a big miss triggered some further selling but strong demand into 1.4040 then 1.4030 meant that shorts ran out of patience and we saw a rally back to 1.4085 before running into fresh supply. EURGBP had capped at 0.7746 and returned to 0.7718 but has since been back to 0.7742 with 0.7750 still the line in the sand on the topside.
The theme of the morning though has been some resilient demand for the euro which has seen EURUSD base above 1.0850 and chew through strong offers between 1.0875-80 to post 1.0892 so far ahead of more offers around 1.0900.
EURJPY has been up to 124.23 and that has helped put the bid back under USDJPY to rally to 114.04 as I type.
USDCHF has drifted lower as EURUSD rallies and EURCHF finds a bid above 1.0830 to crawl up to 1.0850. USDCAD has been range bound 1.3400-50 reflecting oil price moves.
AUDUSD has continued its impressive recent showing to post 0.7337 but has strong sell interest at 0.7350 in its way if the rally is to continue. NZDUSD continues to trawl around 0.6700.
US ISM data is the next key event but the focus really is on those NFPs tomorrow.
