Forex news for US trading on April 21, 2017:

  • Trump says he will unveil tax plan next week with massive tax cuts
  • March US existing home sales 5.71m vs 5.60m expected
  • Markit April US manufacturing PMI 52.8 vs 53.8 expected
  • Fitch downgrades Italy to BBB from BBB+
  • Canada March CPI 1.6% vs +1.8% y/y expected
  • Bundesbank's Weidmann says the global recovery is strengthening
  • ECB's Weidmann: Latest economic data supports view of gradual strengthening
  • CFTC Commitments of Traders: GBP shorts remain near high levels
  • Macron fades in final BVA French election poll
  • Baker Hughes US oil rig count 688 vs 683 prior
  • OPEC technical committee recommends six-month extension to quotas - report
  • OPEC committee believes quota compliance improved in March
  • Fed's Fischer: Political progress has slowed down relative to expectations
  • No change in the latest New York Fed GDP forecast
  • Draghi says risks of deflation have largely disappeared
  • Trump continues to pressure China to do more on North Korea
  • Hammond says UK election will give clear mandate for Brexit talks
  • BOE's Saunders: BOE is not obliged to delay a rate move until certainty of Brexit implications

Markets:

  • Gold up $3 to $1284
  • WTI crude down $1.11 to $49.61
  • US 10-year yields up 1.4 bps to 2.25%
  • S&P 500 down 7 points to 2349
  • NDZ leads, CAD lags

There was plenty of news and reasons to trade today but the FX market was on the sleepy side. Almost everything finished up within 20 pips of opening levels.

The one exception was USD/CAD, which finished up 28 pips to 1.3497. That's surprisingly small given that Canadian CPI was a big whiff to the downside. It was trading at 1.3460 before the data and struggled to break 1.3500 afterwards. It eventually did and hit stops up to 1.3525 but that was the high of the day.

Most of the news didn't do much for USD/JPY. The bond market was in a tight range but stocks bounced around in a decent range. The big news late in the day is that Trump, if you can believe him this time, will actually release his tax plan on Wednesday or shortly thereafter. He also said he believes it's going to be the largest personal and corporate tax cut ever.

Now that sounds like pretty good news but it was only good for 5 points in the S&P 500 and 25 pips in USD/JPY. So take your pick of a market that's skeptical or asleep.

There's also the French election on Sunday and that sent plenty of people to the sidelines. Oh who am I kidding, the market is filled with degenerate gambles and volume on the US-listed France ETF has been huge.

In any case, the euro was stuck in a tight range around 1.07 for all of US trading. It's grabbed a strange, very late bid up to 1.0722. I guess that's people who waited until the last minute to get out. Or it's margin calls because many brokers are hiking margins into the weekend.

Cable didn't do much on the day, finishing entirely unchanged at 1.2813 but the weekly close is the highest since September.