Forex news from the European morning session 23 April 2015
News:
- EU's Dombrovskis says technical talks with Greece should be finished "by May or so"
- Greece says deal with creditors is very close
- Dombrovkis says not to expect a major breakthrough on Greece
- ECB's Praet says Eurozone seems to be "turning the corner"
- All hail the ECB as Praet says they've saved Europe from deflation
- ECB's Coeure says Eurozone recovery remains insufficient
- BOJ's Kuroda says policy board aren't discussing QQE exit yet
- Increased spending counters poor UK retail numbers
- Did today's AUDNZD option expiry at 1.0200 play its part in the Asian moves?
- More detail from NAB on their changed call from a May RBA cut to August now (plus AUD forecasts)
- Happy Birthday YouTube !
- Option expiries 10am NY cut today 23 April
Data:
- March 2015 UK retail sales -0.5% vs +0.4% exp m/m
- Eurozone Markit mftg PMI April 51.9 vs 52.6 exp
- German Markit mftg PMI April flash 51.9 vs 53.0 exp
- France Markit mftg PMI April flash 48.4 vs 49.2
- UK PSNBR March GBP 6.7 bln vs 6.5 bln exp
- Switzerland trade balance March CHF +2.52bln vs +2.12bln exp
- Spain Q1 unemployment rate rises to 23.78% vs 23.7% prev
- German GFK consumer confidence May 10.1 vs 10.0 prev
- French industrial confidence April 101 vs 100 exp
A busy session again with plenty of movement and good two-way business to be had, albeit not necessarily easy to read
The euro had an early wobble on weaker PMI data but then some decent corp buying interest lent support and we saw EURUSD rally back to 1.0730 after posting lows of 1.0665 with EURJPY hitting 127.87 before rallying to post new session highs of 129.09
EURGBP started off on the back foot posting new recent lows of 0.7117, but was already on the way back up at 0.7132 when weak UK retail sales kicked it up to 0.7165 only to run into sellers again at this now pivotal level. GBPUSD similarly bounced from post-data lows of 1.4959 to 1.5018 only to retreat back below 1.5000 once again
USDJPY saw an early move lower from 119.90 to 119.65 as EURJPY selling went through but has since reversed those losses as euro buyers return and we've seen 120.10 so far
USDCAD has found itself on the back foot mostly on the USD-neg sentiment and we've seen lows of 1.2226 from 1.2265 but relatively tight range-trading still. AUDUSD and NZDUSD have both had more than eye on the large $3bln option expiry today at 1.0200 and the core pairs have traded tightly as a result
Greek headlines still coming thick and fast, unlike any agreement and traders are on hot coals still.
Expect more of the same
