Forex news from the European morning session 16 Feb
News:
- Troika are reported to be in agreement to new Greek aid programme to replace existing one
- Germany's Schaeuble says he's sceptical that an agreement will be found today between Greece and EU
- French fin min Sapin sees "huge danger" for Greece if it leaves the Eurozone
- EU says it's had discussions,not negotiations, with Greek institutions
- Ukraine says it's not ready to withdraw heavy weapons while ceasefire violated by rebels
- UK's CBI upgrades 2015 GDP forecast to +2.7%
- Japan's Abe sees signs of recovery in Japan's economy
- More from Abe: Hopes the BOJ steadily continues bold monetary easing to achieve CPI target
- Bundesbank says growth might be much higher than forecast for current year
- AUDNZD posts record lows
- Option expiries 10am NY cut 16 Feb
Data:
- December 2015 Eurozone trade balance 24.3bnvs 20.0bn exp NSA
- SNB sight deposits w/e Feb 13 CHF 384.92 vs 384.89 prev
- Nikkei 225 closes up +0.51% at 18,004.77
Enough going in this morning to provide some good intra-day opportunity but traders are undoubtedly keeping a bit of powder dry for the main event later from Brussels as EU/Greece talks resume
The Greenback came in for a little bit of selling in Asia but it's fared better in Europe with USDJPY holding some gains above 118.40 and USDCHF finding support from the ongoing EURCHF demand
The euro has fared ok with some decent buying interest in EURGBP to 0.7428 from 0.7395 adding to EURUSD demand above 1.1400 and putting a cap once again on GBPUSD, this time at 1.5441 after further advances through 1.5450 proved a step too far and we;ve been back to test support at 1.5370
USDCAD has had a quiet morning finding bids into 1.2420 from 1.2460 but failing to make any real rebound while AUDNZD had posted record lows of 1.0331 following on from decent Kiwi retail data and AUDUSD finding 0.7800 decent resistance again
USD and Canadian hols today so it's all eyes on Brussels to provide more clues, not forgetting the Ukraine back-drop continuing to cast its shadow.
