Forex news from European trading - 15 December 2017
Economic data:
- BOE Q4 2017 quarterly bulletin says Brexit is still influencing household outlook
- France Q3 final wages q/q +0.3% vs +0.3% prelim
- Eurozone October trade balance EUR 19.0bn vs EUR 24.3bn expected
Central banks/Brexit:
- More from Nowotny: No possibility to expand corporate bond purchases
- ECB's Nowotny: ECB should look through oil-price impact on inflation
- ECB's Vasiliauskas: QE measures implemented are showing results
- EU's Juncker: European leaders did not discuss Brexit last night at dinner
- EU's Tusk: EU leaders formally approve second phase of Brexit talks
- UK PM spokesman Blain: Govt has no plans to remove exit date in EU withdrawal bill
- Schulz: Recommends that SDP begin exploratory talks with Merkel on forming coalition
- Bank of Spain estimates GDP grew 3.1% in 2017
- Bundesbank: German economy reaching increasingly mature state
- RBA's Harper: Rates need to stay supportive of the economy
Others:
- FX option expiries - 15 Dec 2017
- JP Morgan sees the S&P500 hitting the 3,000 mark in 2018
- Bitcoin continues its surge to record highs
- US regulators don't rate Bitcoin as a risk to the financial system
- SK's Joo: Virtual currency market a "wild horse" that needs to be domesticated
Markets:
- NZD leads the way, GBP the laggard
- European equities down on the day, follows that in Asia
- Gold is up by 0.42% to $1,258.03
- WTI crude is higher on the day by 0.60% to $57.38
- US 10-year yields up by 1bps to 2.35%
It was a quiet day in terms of the calendar, but there is plenty of action to be had all around. The dollar was the prime mover early on after tax bill worries started to weigh in and we saw the greenback fall across the board - and the moves are still holding (more or less) on most major pairs.
The biggest gainer on the day is the NZD after some short covering in the kiwi in AUD/NZD sent the currency higher so far today. But NZD/USD remains capped by the 0.7030 resistance that I pointed out here.
Meanwhile, CAD continued to maintain its form from yesterday's comments by BOC head Poloz which were a tad bit hawkish. EUR, JPY, CHF, AUD all gained against the USD but are relatively muted - with EUR/USD and USD/JPY having large option expiries that may be interfering with the price action for the time being.
GBP is the biggest loser on the day after sliding in the late morning, and cable has slipped below 1.3400 now. Good all round action despite the lack of data/news, which means we as traders should follow the theme rather than try and buck the trend on days like this.
