Forex trading news and economic data headlines 23 October 2015

Asia session headlines catch up: ForexLive Asia FX news wrap: EUR stages mini recovery from lows

  • PBOC cuts interest rates
  • Many traders are looking for a euro bounce to sell so where will the best levels be?
  • September 2015 Italian hourly wages 0.0% vs 0.0% prior m/m
  • Greece's Tsipras says the economic crisis remains a threat to the Eurozone
  • Q2 2015 Eurozone Q2 government debt 92.2% of GDP vs 92.7% in Q1
  • August 2015 Italian retail sales 0.3% vs 0.4% prior m/m SA
  • PBOC says they need to pay close attention to financial sector
  • More from the order boards 23 October
  • ECB professional forecasters Q4 survey raises 2015 GDP expectation to +1.5% vs +1.4% prev
  • Italy industrial orders Aug mm -5.5% vs +0.4% prev
  • Eurozone Markit mftg PMI Oct flash 52.0 vs 51.7 prev
  • Goldman Sachs see ECB cutting depo rate to -0.5% if euro strengthens
  • Germany Markit mftg PMI Oct flash 51.6 vs 51.7 exp
  • Abe adviser Honda repeats there is no need for additional BOJ easing at the moment
  • France Markit mftg PMI flash Oct 50.7 vs 50.2 exp
  • SNB succeeds in its ECB damage-limitation exercise
  • PBOC to maintain prudent monetary policy in Q4
  • Japan's Suga says sales-tax hike to 8% had bigger impact than expected
  • Japan leading index CI Aug final 103.50 vs 103.50 flash
  • Westpac sees RBA keeping rates on hold in November
  • Option expiries 10am NY cut today 23 Oct
  • Post-links Paragraph Text Here, don't forget an image

'Very dodgy looking' is probably the best way to describe the euro today. It may have found a base at 1.1070 but it's not straying to far from it and any gains are being quashed fairly quickly. The warning signs are there for all to see, and they'd best be heeded

The move to 1.1140 came after a pretty decent round of positive manufacturing PMI's from Europe. This data, before yesterday, would have probably seen the euro make greater gains. The fact that it hasn't shows that the market is fully bought in to ECB action coming in Dec no matter whether the numbers say they may not need to. We're walking the tightrope right now as the market decides where it wants to go next

USDJPY was hit by selling in EURJPY and Abe's adviser Honda telling everyone that there is no need for the BOJ to ease at the moment. If the yen was down on expectations that the BOJ would join the ECB is delivering some Xmas easing then this was perhaps a wake up call that that may not be the case we fell to 120.23 before recovering modestly to 120.55. We look to have found a comfy chair to rest in at 120.45. That was until the PBOC cut rates and now we're up at 120.80

The pound looks to be in limbo while it's all going off across the channel. It will be happy to be pulled and pushed around by what happens in the euro and dollar so don't be looking to it for any inspiration

AUDUSD is just off the highs after Westpac noted to clients that they see the RBA on hold next month. The bank started the run on hiking mortgage rates and were joined by others overnight. While broadly thought of as moves that will be followed by an RBA cut, the Westpac note has gone someway to burst that bubble. Obviously right now we've seen a jump on the back of the China rate cuts, with 0.7300 being tested as I type