Forex news for US trading on March 21, 2016:
- US Feb existing home sales 5.08m vs 5.31m expected
- Fed's Lockhart: Rate hikes justified as soon as April
- Fed's Lockhart Q&A: We want to stay away from threshold of deflation
- Gunmen attack EU military training mission in Mali
- Former BOE Governor King: ECB and BOJ essentially trying to push down FX
- BOJ's Nakaso: Technically possible to go further into negative rates
- BOJ's Nakaso: No need to be overly concerned about economic overheating
- El-Badri: Some OPEC members won't attend Doha meeting
- ECB's Stournaras: Countries with fiscal space must boost demand
- El-Badri: OPEC cannot balance oil market alone
- ECB QE count: QE €12.406B vs €12.509B last week
- China reached out to Fed for advice in halting stock market decline
- Goldman Sachs investigated for rigging the Treasury market
- Valeant says earnings were misstated, will replace CEO
- Schaeuble: Globalisation is a bigger shock for Germany than France
- IMF wants to know what China's up to in FX - Livesquawk
- Chicago Fed National Activity Index -0.29 vs +0.25 expected
Markets:
- S&P 500 up 2 points to 2051
- Gold down $12 to $1243
- April WTI contract expires up 47-cents to $39.91
- US 10-year yields up 4 bps to 1.92%
- USD leads, GBP lags
It was a slower session but USD/JPY was probably the story of the day. It made a slow climb up to 111.93 from 111.50. It stalled first at 111.86, which was the 38.2% retracement of the Fed decline. It gave way later in the day and USD/JPY finished at the highs.
EUR/USD started at 1.1270 and faded down to 1.1234 which matched the early low. It didn't break and it bounced up to 1.1255 but it's back testing the lows now.
Cable slumped in European trading on Brexit worries. It sagged to 1.4374 then bounced up to 1.4425 in Europe but fresh sellers arrived in US trading. The pair slipped to 1.4364 despite the soft existing home sales report. It finished near the lows.
USD/CAD and oil were sending opposing signals. Oil strengthened but USD/CAD rose. USD/CAD is testing the European high of 1.3085 as it makes a series of higher lows in a broad environment of mild USD strength.
AUD/USD jumped to 0.7625 from 0.7580 in Europe but slowly sagged back down in US trading. So far the session low of 0.7569 is holding.
