Forex news from the European morning session 1 May 2015
News:
- BOJ says a further rise in inflation expectations needed to hit 2% target
- It would be hard for the Fed to raise rates here says Warren Buffett
- ireland is moving into a time of repair says departing central bank head Honohan
- HSBC says BOJ likely to ease in Q4 rather than Q2
- EURGBP demand helps place a cap on cable (Part 2)
- The wheels are not coming off of the UK recovery yet but they're looking rather wobbly
- Option expiries 10am NY cut today 1 May
Data:
- April 2015 UK Markit CIPS manufacturing PMI 51.9 vs 54.6 exp
- UK M4 money supply March mm +0.3 vs -0.2% prev
- RBA commodity index April 81.2 vs 84.2 prev
- Japan vehicle sales April yy +5.0% vs -13.1%
- Nikkei 225 closes up +0.06% at 19,531.63
A busy session with many European centres closed but which saw the pound come in for further attack on a mix of weak data and still-strong euro
It was understandably a quiet start but then the euro took off again on a continuing theme and we saw EURUSD upto 1.1285 after holding a test on 1.1200 and that dragged GBPUSD up to 1.5398 from 1.5350 as EURGBP failed to advance further through 0.7335 and dipped to test 0.7300-10 support.
Cue weaker UK mftg PMI and another knock-back for the pound with cable dropping from 1.5380 to 1.5287 before staging a mini-rally to 1.5320 only to fall back again and this time breach decent support/bids at 1.5280 to post lows of 1.5268 just above even stronger tech support at 1.5260
EURGBP needed little excuse to roar higher again and after taking out offers/res at 0.7335 was soon punching through 0.7350 to post 0.7378 ahead of strong res/offers into 0.7400
EURJPY has continued to march higher and has now taken out 135.00 to post 135.14 highs and continues to give support to USDJPY which had a wobble on a weaker Nikkei initiall only to rally again as the 225 recovered into the close. USDJPY has bounced from 119.65 to 119.87 on the EURJPY but has been tempered by GBPJPY selling down to 182.95 from earlier highs of 184.49
USDCAD has weaved its way higher from 1.2070 to 1.2109 on falling oil before running out of steam and AUDUSD has been treading water albeit in some degree of retreat still between 0.7865-0.7900 while NZDUSD has trod a similar path between 0.7570-0.7600
US mftg PMI to come later and it's thin out there so we can expect more thrills n spills before the week is done
