Forex news for European trading on May 24 2017

News:

  • Kuwait and Venezuela both support 9 month extension to output cut deal
  • Kuwait says it's all still in the mix regarding oil output deal
  • Iran says OPEC output cut deal will continue but duration remains unclear
  • ECB's Constancio says policy is set with inflation objective
  • ECB's Praet: Eurozone upswing is becoming increasingly solid
  • ECB says Brexit not one of the main concerns for Eurozone financial stability
  • China says Moody's downgrade over-estimates the difficulties facing economy
  • China's debt risks "generally controllable"
  • Morgan Stanley warn China funding rate to rise in coming months
  • Australia - NAB says "real risk that Q1 GDP could print a flat or even a small negative"
  • Forex option expiries for the 10am New York cut 24 May
  • USDJPY in retreat with large expiries looming later
  • Pound rally fades again as key levels hold
  • Nikkei 225 closes up +0.66% at 19,742.98

Data:

  • Germany GFK June consumer confidence 10.4 vs 10.2 expected
  • Japan March leading index CI final 105.5 as expected

Not a rip-roaring session by any means but good opportunities for day traders prepared to get involved.

USDJPY opened up nudging 112.00 but has since retreated to 111.68 with large option expiries at 112.00 making an impact as I warned early on. Yen demand in general notable but GBPJPY a prime mover again from 145.41 to 144.80.

That pressure was helped/triggered by core pairs finding their own resistance . USDJPY at 112.00 and GBPUSD bang on 1.3000. That pair has since fallen to 1.2958 with EURGBP demand at 0.8600 prevailing and the pair rallying to 0.8634 before running into offers as per the order board.

EURUSD has got caught up in the cross play crossfire (EURGBP demand vs EURJPY supply) and spent most of the session around 1.1185 but with two failed attempts on 1.1200

Lots of headline noise on oil ahead of tomorrow's OPEC/non-OPEC meeting and with more producers adding their vote for a 9 month extension. Oil prices seem fatigued though after recent gains and perhaps already factored in extensions anyway. WTI has fallen to $51.26 from $51.89 and Brent from $54.01 from $54.64. USDCAD though has failed to rally and been trawling around 1.3500 session lows for a while now after a fall from 1.3535

AUDUSD has found some dip demand into 0.7430 after the fall on China's downgrade by Moody's and NZDUSD also has found support at 0.6990 to post 0.7032.

Elsewhere equities have been range bound with mixed tones while gold has similarly been tightly bound between $1248 and $1253.

Highlight of the US session is the release of the FOMC Minutes at 18.00 GMT but there's US housing data before that to keep things ticking over. BOC interest rate decision at 14.00 GMT