Forex news for European trading 14 December 2017:
Central banks:
- SNB leaves rates unchanged at -0.75%
- BOE leaves rates unchanged at 0.50%
- ECB leaves key interest rates, QE on hold
- GBP traders not liking BOE's "limited and gradual" rhetoric
- Full text of the BOE's December MPC meeting summary
- SNB's Jordan: Won't raise rates for a relatively long time
- SNB's Jordan: CHF still highly valued despite recent weakening
- More from SNB's Jordan: Too early to talk about normalisation
- SNB's Jordan: Cryptocurrencies don't pose a risk for monetary policy
- PBOC said to have raised SLF by 5bps
- CBRT raises late liquidity window lending rate by 50bps to 12.75%
Economic data:
- UK November retail sales m/m +1.1% vs +0.4% expected
- Italy November CPI final m/m -0.2% vs -0.2% expected
- Eurozone December manufacturing PMI 60.6 vs 59.7 expected
- Germany December manufacturing PMI 63.3 vs 62.0 expected
- Switzerland November PPI m/m +0.6% vs +0.5% prior
- Spain November CPI final m/m +0.5% vs +0.4% expected
- France December manufacturing PMI 59.3 vs 57.2 expected
- France November CPI final m/m +0.1% vs +0.1% expected
Others:
- FX option expiries - 14 December 2017
- EU's Tusk: Only unity of EU will take it through the most difficult of tasks
- UK PM spokesman Blain: Plans to write Brexit date into withdrawal are unchanged
- Putin: US provoked North Korea into violating agreements
- UK's Davis: A no deal situation is massively less probable after last week's deal
- Denmark may add new laws to tax Bitcoin profits
- EU's Juncker: Confidence in the euro has never been stronger
- Bitcoin - The world's first decentralised Ponzi scheme?
- Nikkei 225 closes down -0.28% at 22,694.45
Markets:
- AUD leads the pack, NZD the laggard
- Equities mostly lower across the board in Europe and in Asia
- Gold up on the day +0.11%
- WTI crude down on the day -0.62%
- US 10-year yields up 3bps to 2.37%
It was central bank bonanza day but barely anything budged to be honest. The dollar started the session on the backfoot, but then recovered some poise as European traders came into play.
Central bank-wise, the SNB got things started leaving rates unchanged. That was followed up by the Turkish central bank raising rates, but below expectations. Then, we had the BOE also leaving rates unchanged. And lastly, the ECB also left things unchanged in their rate decision.
A lot of events, but not very eventful to sum it up.
GBP was the most eventful currency on the major bloc as retail sales data gave it a little bit of a boost as GBP/USD went up to 1.3466, before it came crashing back down as a Twitter post (!) sent fear into the market to 1.3409. All in all, it was just a "damp squid" as David Davis was not to be found in contempt for not being clear with his Brexit statements in parliament. GBP/USD came back up to 1.3440 again. Then, we had the BOE decision and the pair fell back to a low of 1.3418.
Good two-way pips to be had. Other major currencies were a bit more quiet on the day, nothing much happening. Watch out for option expiries as there are some large ones for EUR/USD and USD/JPY that could come into play.
The AUD leads the way after better than expecting job numbers early in the Asian session, while the NZD continues to lag after the New Zealand government cut growth forecasts in an announcement earlier.
Hope you all have a good rest of the day, and see you all again tomorrow!
