Forex news for European trading on May 22 2017
News:
- Euro rallies as Merkel says the currency is "too weak"
- Merkel blames the ECB for weak euro
- Merkel: Have to prevent further states from leaving the EU
- Fitch say US trade protectionism still the key risk for world economy
- China & US trade officials comments - trade war in no-one's interest
- EU's Dombrovskis says economic trends overall are positive
- EU recommends end of Portugal, Croatia disciplinary procedure
- French finance minister Le Maire - Brexit an opportunity for EUR zone re fin mkts
- German finance minister Schaeuble: Germany, France have responsibility for the euro
- Saudi oil minister meeting with Iraqi counterpart today
- Add Iraq to the list of oil producers ready to extend production cuts
- BOJ purchases ETFs, J-REITs today
- Germany sees no pay-out for Greece at this week's Eurogroup meeting
- GBPUSD tumbles in early trading with large option expiries in play
- Did you see the 2 forex-related job postings? (And here's another 100 banking jobs!)
- SNB total sight deposits w-e 19 May CHF 575.51bln vs 574.992 bln prev
- Fitch revises outlooks on Nomura and Daiwa to Stable from Negative
- Forex option expiries for the 10am New York cut 22 May
- More option expiries of note this week 23-26 May
- Nikkei 225 closes up +0.45% at 19,678.28
Data: None of note
Monday malaise? Currency markets were having none of it as the week gets off to a very lively start.
Large option expiries today in many major pairs and it wasn't long before GBPUSD was testing those at 1.2975 from 1.3005 with GPBJPY selling once again a primer mover from 145.00 into 144.00. USDJPY fell too from 111.45 to 111.15 as did EURUSD to 1.1162 from 1.1190 as yen demand prevailed.
Good two-way business then prevailed with USDCAD testing 1.3500 on firmer oil prices and AUDUSD holding its own around 0.7450.
More of the same for a while then came comments from Germany's Merkel and the robots lapped up the euro "too weak" quote to send EUR pairs sharply higher.
EURUSD has posted 1.1246 from 1.1180, EURGBP 0.8645 and EURJPY recovering all the early losses to also post session highs of 125.30
GBPUSD also rallied but capped by EURGBP outpacing and we've clung to 1.3000 since.
WTI has been up to $51.20 from $50.80 and back down again. Brent similarly between $53.85 and $54.15
Gold has been on a steady incline from $1252.50 to $1257.40 just short of the opening Asian highs.
Equities opened mixed and have remained in that mode.
No data of note today but we do some CB talking heads lined up later.
