Forex news for US trading on February 21, 2017:
- February 2017 US Markit manufacturing PMI flash 54.3 vs 55.3 exp
- Markit US February prelim services PMI 53.9 vs 55.8 expected
- Carney: Rates might rise quicker or slower than the market expects
- Mnuchin told IMF he wants 'frank and candid' analysis of currencies
- Fed's Harker highlights data ahead of March meeting
- Fed's Harker: We're seeing growth pick up in Europe
- Fed's Harker: Repeats that he sees three hikes this year
- Kashkari: It's what we can't see that keeps me up at night
- Kashkari: Fed has a third mandate of financial stability
- Fed's Kaskari: Big banks are still too big to fail
- January 2017 US Philly Fed non-manufacturing business activity 29.3 vs 37.7 prior
- FXCM CEO resigns, company changes name
- Le Pen loses a pip to Fillon in latest Opinionway French election poll
Markets:
- Gold down $2 to $1236
- WTI crude up 66-cents to $54.06
- S&P 500 up 14 points to record 2365
- US 10-year yields up 1.4 bps to 2.43%
- GBP leads, EUR lags
The euro broke down below 1.06 but wasn't able to knock out the January lows. It came close with a session-worst 1.0526 but bounced in part due to misses in the US PMIs from Markit. That triggered a 25-pip bounce in EUR/USD.
USD/JPY was helped by rising stocks and yields. It was flirting with 113.80 when the soft data hit and sank to 113.45 to match the Asian low but that held and the pair slowly climbed back to 113.70.
Cable showed some serious resilience as a 60-pip fall in Europe was slowly erased. The pair jumped on the US data and then got a second wind from flows into the London fix. It finishes near at session high at 1.2477.
USD/CAD finished higher despite a 66-cent rally in oil. The gains all came early in Asia. In North American trading the pair chopped around in the 1.3140-60 range, touching each side a handful of times.
The Australian dollar was also beaten up at the open and slipped to 0.7650 but it battled all the way back to 0.7680 in New York trade to finish nearly flat.
