Forex news from the European morning session 24 April 2015
News:
- Greece's Varoufakis gets it in the neck from EU ministers
- More on the Varoufakis story. Accused of being a "time-waster"
- We need an agreement in the next few months ahead of June deadline says Djisselbloem
- EU' Dijsselbloem says comprehensive Greek deal is necessary before disbursments can take place
- Slovakia's fin min says Eurogroup and Greece have two months to reach a deal
- Germany's Schaeuble says he does not think there will be decisive progress on Greece in Riga
- EU's Dijsselbloem says there is a great urgency to reach a deal with Greece
- EU's Dombrovksis says not enough progress has been made on Greek talks
- France's Sapin says there is room for manoeuvre on targets for Greek primary surplus
- Varoufakis says Greek position in negotiations is strategic, not tactical
- Greece secures EUR 450m from local authorities
- Japan's Yamamoto sees likelihood of BOJ increasing stimulus on April 30
- SNB's Jordan says CHF "significantly" overvalued
- SNB says Greek crisis could cause further CHF rise
- Option expiries 10am NY cut today 24 April
- EU's Dombrovskis tweets that things aren't going too well at Eurogroup meeting
- EU' Dijsselbloem says comprehensive Greek deal is necessary before disbursments can take place
- We need an agreement in the next few months ahead of June deadline says Djisselbloem
Data:
- German IFO April business climate 108.6 vs 108.4 exp
- Spanish PPI March mm+0.5% vs +0.2% prev
- Greek Jan-March Q1 central govt primary surplus EUR 1.73bln vs 1.54bln yy
- Nikkei 225 closes down -0.83% at 20,020.04
It's been a crazysession to end a scrappy but busy week with early surges in the euro and pound triggering stops, before events in Riga gave the multi-country ccy a kick back down
Far too many thrills n spills to detail it all here ( just check your 5min charts!) but the gist is that we saw rapid rises in EURUSD from 1.0800 to 1.0860 and then 1.0897 with GBPUSD rising in a rush from 1.5045 to 1.5080 where it stalled again before rushing through 1.5110 to 1.5135 next res then 1.5147. EURGBP had been happy to follow up to 0.7212 before running into sellers
It was euro-bull optimism on today's Eurogroup meeting in Riga that led the moves with traders soon going after the stops and the moves took on a life of their own with USDJPY getting caught in the cross fire and failing to drop too far at first but then finally posting 119.15 from 119.50 while USDCHF fell to 0.9510 from 0.9570
But then came reports of bickering and discontent from Riga and the euro was soon turning lower with EURUSD posting 1.0811, EURGBP 0.7150 and EURJPY 129.30 from earlier highs of 130.12
Throughout all this though GBPUSD has been reluctant to fall, supported by the EURGBP selling, but has been back through 1.5110 briefly before finding fresh buyers. Talk of many election-based shorts being squeezed out on the way up and real money starting to go long.
USDCAD has been treading water but posted lows of 1.2111 while AUDUSD and NZDUSD have both failed to hold gains above 0.7800 and 0.7600 and retreated 0.7764 and 0.7543
US durable goods to throw into the mix shortly and we can expect more volatility before the week is out. Just don't look too deeply for any reason or rationale
