Forex news for European trading on May 23 2017

News:

  • Manchester death toll rises to 22
  • UK's May: All acts of terrorism are cowardly but this attack in Manchester is particularly sickening
  • Manchester shopping centre evacuated, many fleeing
  • Germany's IFO say latest report and other indicators suggest Q2 +0.6% GDP
  • UAE supports oil production cut extension
  • Kuwait pours some cold water on 9-month oil output cut extension
  • Greek government says lenders have a moral, political and legal duty to meet obligations
  • Forex option expiries for the 10am New York cut 23 May
  • Nikkei 225 closes down -0.33% at 19,613.28

Data:

  • Eurozone Markit mftg PMI May flash 57.0 vs 56.5 exp
  • Germany IFO May business climate 114.6 vs 113.1 exp
  • Germany Markit/BME mftg PMI May flash 59.4 vs 58.0 exp
  • Germany Q1 GDP SA qq final +0.6% as expected
  • France Markit mftg PMI May flash 54.0 vs 55.2 exp
  • UK CBI May distributive trades survey 2 vs 10 exp
  • UK April PSNBR GBP 9.6bln vs 8.0bln expected
  • France May manufacturing confidence 109 vs 108 exp
  • Switzerland April trade balance CHF +1.97bln vs 3.04bln prev
  • Japan April machine tool orders final 34.7% as expected
  • Japan March all industry activity index mm -0.6% vs -0.5% exp

Markets have continued to function, as they always do in times of tragedy, but last night's events in Manchester have most certainly cast a sad and uneasy shadow.

The pound had small wobble on the tragic news in Asian trading when the story first broke. GBPUSD fell to 1.2973 but has since found decent sell interest at 1.3000 exacerbated by strong EURGBP demand still to post 0.8675.

Euro demand generally prevailing again with EURUSD up to fresh 6-month highs of 1.1269 helped by decent PMI and IFO before running out of steam as traders took some more money off the table .

USDJPY had an early dip into 111.00 from 111.20 as GBPJPY supply led both core pairs lower but as equities rallied strongly from an uncertain start so we saw yen -pair demand as risk-on sentiment prevailed. That has also helped support core pairs for the most part but not stopping GBPUSD having another wobble to test 1.2950.

Since then though and after another Manchester bomb scare was dismissed we've seen EURGBP retreat to 0.8657 and GBPUSD rally to 1.2982 as I type.

USDCAD has made steady retreat to 1.3456 as oil remains supported albeit off its highs as Kuwait cast some doubt over the 9-month output cut extension. WTI and Brent both retreated but found decent dip demand.

AUD and NZD have both continued to feel the love with generally softer USD tones prevailing but AUDUSD did find resistance above 0.7500 as gold retreated from $1263 to $1258.50.

US housing data and a few ECB/FOMC talking heads to throw into the mix but the world's attention is sadly on Manchester right now.