Forex news for New York trading April 14, 2016:
- US March CPI +0.9% y/y vs +1.1% y/y expected
- US initial employment claims 253k vs. 270K est.
- PBOC deputy 'pretty confident' China GDP will rise 6.5 to 6.7% this year
- April junk bond defaults have already hit two-year high
- Fed's Lockhart: Will no longer advocate for hike in April
- Fed's Lockhart: June interest rate hike should remain an option
- Fed's Lockhart: Monetary policy is not the only game in town
- EU President Dijsselbloem: Limitations of loose monetary policy evident
- PBOC's Zhou says over-borrowing isn't a problem
- Iran oil exports surge according to tanker tracking data
- Canada Feb new house price index +1.8% vs +1.8% y/y expected
- Eurozone 2016 inflation to average +0.3% - Reuters poll
- Earthquake hits southern Japan, some buildings collapse
Markets:
- Gold down $16 to $1225
- US 10-year yields up 2 bps to 1.78%
- S&P 500 flat at 2082
- WTI crude down 45-cents to $41.30
- AUD leads, NZD lags
The market took a bit of a breather on Thursday. The CPI was the main event and it led to a brief round of US dollar selling but it was largely erased in a plodding retracement in the subsequent hours.
EUR/USD bumped up to a session high of 1.1295 from 1.1250 on the CPI data. It showed a disappointing 0.9% y/y rise in prices compared to 1.1% expected. The highs quickly retraced back to 1.1275 and chopped around there for 90 minutes before sagging back to 1.1250.
USD/JPY was inspired at several moments but finished largely unchanged. The pair fell 20 pips on CPI and then consolidated. A further 40 pip decline came after reports of damage from the earthquake. When the damage reports didn't prove to be overly severe, the decline retraced. Last at 109.28.
Cable was in focus because of the BOE but the only result was a tough-to-trade chop in the 1.4100 to 1.4175. A few runs back-and-forth slowly set off a series of higher lows and it ticked up to 1.4156 late in the day.
USD/CAD fell fairly hard on the US CPI numbers in a slide to 1.2780 from 1.2830. Its rebound was partly fueled by falling oil prices. Crude got a lift earlier from the EIA report but sagged on talk of higher Iranian exports.
The Australian dollar cruised after the employment report. The peak for the day of 0.7737 came 20 minutes after the CPI data and it was a slow slide back to 0.7696 from there.
