Forex news and trading headlines 10 Jan 2016
News:
- Northern Ireland government in turmoil as McGuiness resigns
- Iraq cuts oil production by 160k bpd for OPEC deal terms
- Turkey's central bank steps in to stem lira declines
- Turkish lira falls to record lows versus USD
- China's Xi to attend 2017 World Economic Forum in Davos
- Bad loans at Italian banks in November down 1.7% yy to EUR 199.1bln
- Germany's BDI says they expect GDP growth of around +1.5% in 2017
- Nikkei 225 closes down -0.79% at 19,301.44
Data:
- US NFIB December small business optimism 105.8 vs 99.5 exp
- France November industrial production mm +2.2% vs +0.6% exp
- Switzerland December unemployment rate 3.5% as exp
- China passenger vehicle sales Dec yy +17.1%
- Japan December consumer confidence index 43.1 vs 41.4 exp
A busy session that has began with the pound mostly on the back foot again and yen demand notable but we've had a rollercoaster ride since.
GBPUSD and GBPJPY started on the back foot at 1.2140 and 140.25 but then came a buying spell that also saw USDPY up through 115.60 after 115.21 lows to breach 115.80.
Then the GBPJY sellers returned and we saw a GBPUSD dip to 1.2107 from 1.2157 before another bounce to 1.2160 then retreating. USDJPY finally broke back up through 116.00 as buyers emerged into 115.70 and posted 116.08 before running out of steam.
In the meantime EURGBP was also on a roller coaster ride between 0.8715-0.8764 which in turn was capping and supporting EURUSD between 1.0620-1.0570.Equities have firmed from a wobbly start and that has helped lessen the euro demand too.
While all this was going on we saw the Turkish lira tumbling to record lows before the central bank stepped in.
Oil was in retreat then got a small lift on news that Iraq was already cutting it's oil output albeit still short of OPEC-agreed levels and that rally saw USDCAD capped at 1.3247 from 1.3220 with CADJPY selling earlier helping to support.
Similarly the yen demand overall has seen pressure on AUDUSD and NZDUSD to cap at 0.7375 and 0.7035 respectively to trigger retreats in both pairs.
Not a lot on the data front today but there's enough going on without it.