Forex news from the European trading session - 15 January 2018
Economic data:
- BOJ raises economic assessment for 3 of Japan's 9 regions
- Japan December prelim machine tool orders +48.3% vs +46.8% prior
- SNB total sight deposits w.e. 12 Jan CHF 573.8 bn vs CHF 572.8 bn prior
- Eurozone November trade balance SA EUR 22.5 bn vs EUR 22.3 bn expected
Central banks/Government:
- China believed to escalate crackdown on cryptocurrency trading - report
- Bundesbank not yet invested reserves in CNY - spokeswoman
- Spain's Rajoy says Catalan direct rule to continue until new government in place
- Le Maire says French 2018 GDP should exceed 1.7% expectations
- Scottish govt: No credible outcome from Brexit talk other than UK remaining part of EU
- BOJ Nagoya branch manager: Positive moves emerging in Japan toward an end to deflation
Others:
- Cable surges on USD supply triggering stops
- Dollar continues to weaken further on the day
- Chinese industry body warns of risks associated with cryptocurrencies
- UK's Carillion goes into liquidation after talks fail
- German economy to expand 2.3% in 2018 - Bloomberg survey
- Nikkei 225 closes higher by 0.26% at 23,714.88
- Moody's: Euro area's economic recovery supports stable 2018 outlook
- Jakarta exchange evacuated after floor collapse
- Mysterious Twitter user draws attention from a host of Japanese traders
Markets:
- NZD leads on the day, USD lags behind
- European equities mostly lower on the day
- Gold is up by 0.29% to $1,341.81
- WTI crude is down by 0.09% to $64.24
- US 10-year yields not traded (US holiday)
- Bitcoin is 0.6% lower on the day at $13,670
Well, what else is new over the past three weeks? Dollar continues to be hammered today in the European session as we get the week started. The ICE dollar index fell to 3-year lows on Friday, and the rout continued into today's trading as the dollar is sold across the board.
There wasn't much data points to look out for in the session, as most major currencies just extended gains against the greenback in a trend movement more than anything else. The majority of the major currencies took turns to lead the day but now it is the NZD (AUD, EUR and GBP all at one point led).
EUR/USD traded to a high of 1.2297 before sellers emerged and the pair is back down now to 1.2257. Cable meanwhile caught a quick bid in a move to break the 1.3800 level. The spike saw it jump from 1.3780 to 1.3808 in a flash. The pair then came back down before making a move back up to 1.3820 but then sellers came back in and it is now trading at 1.3771.
Meanwhile, CAD has failed to make as much strides against the USD as the rest of the major bloc as NAFTA talks is still casting a big shadow on any CAD movement thus far. There's also the Bank of Canada meeting due on Wednesday, in which the central bank is expected to raise rates by 25 bps.
The dollar retraced some gains late in the session, which helps stem the bleeding a little - but the theme in trading today is clear, and the dollar has already lost quite a bit of ground as we enter European mid-day.
Dollar index slumped to a low of 90.279 earlier, but rebounded a little to 90.527 now. On the day, it is still down by 0.49% though.
In commodities, gold is continuing its uptrend given the dollar weakness while oil is retracing some of its gains from last week - but remains on the high side still.
And in company news, UK's Carillion goes into liquidation after failed talks with banks and the government - which could impact the jobs market a little. UK PM May's spokesman then came out to say that tax payers can not be expected to bail out the company.
