EURUSD, Daily
EU says that further progress is needed in Greece talks. Yet again Greek officials are suggesting a quick deal with creditors, although today, it admittedly sounded more like this was just what Greek wants rather than a done deal. By contrast, creditors remain pessimistic and an EU spokeswoman said there are still issues that need to be resolved, with further progress needed in talks that will continue in coming days. Varoufakis calls for Greek debt restructuring, while saying that the IMF has a very dark history over the past 20-25 years. A Greek government spokesman meanwhile said the country is not planning to bundle its IMF repayments and aims to have a deal by Sunday. She also said that she is working on a common document with creditors. Creditors meanwhile continue to highlight that there are still considerable differences and Varoufakis’ comments on the IMF highlight that his tone hasn’t softened. This obviously is not helping. Neither are the conflicting messages coming out of Greece and it should be clear by now that only when creditor officials announce that a deal is imminent we can actually believe it. Greek officials seem to equate their hope for a quick deal, with actual progress. At the same time ECB’s Nowotny has commented the wider Eurozone economy by saying that there is no “currency war� in a historical range, but he admitted that the ECBs quantitative easing program has helped the Eurozone economy by weakening the EUR. However, he also warned that widespread negative yields can’t be normal.
We have seen some short term bullish momentum since yesterday in EURUSD and need to now have some follow-through (or more consolidation) to avoid further decline. At the time of writing EURUSD is trading inside yesterday’s pin bar range after it fell back from 1.0950 where it was close to the 50% Fibonacci level and Monday’s low. After yesterday’s reaction higher from support level and a close inside the lower Bollinger band the likelihood of price turning higher has increased. However, I would now like to see price creating a higher low and close above yesterday’s high to further support the reversal indication. This would suggest that price could move through the moving average resistance and to next resistance where previous support and 38.2% Fibonacci levels coincide. EURUSD is now approaching the levels that attracted buyers yesterday. Intraday price action at these levels is of high importance as we are looking for indications on markets’ collective opinion of this potential momentum reversal. Should the current support fail, the next significant daily support level is at 1.0660.
Currency Pairs, Grouped Performance (% Change)
Today’s clear trend is the AUD and NZD weakness. When compared to the USD currencies more or less have had the same percentage change (± 40 basis points) except AUD and NZD that have fallen 122 and 155 basis points respectively against the USD. Apart from the slight USD strength today the Euro and CHF have had some strength against the other currencies while GBP and JPY have had a mixed performance. Again, it’s the AUD and NZD weakness that have moved EURAUD and EURNZD more than other EUR pairs.
Main Macro Events Today
- UK Gross Domestic Product (QoQ) Preliminary Q1 GDP came in sub-expectations at +0.3% q/q, half the median forecast and down from the 0.6% growth of Q4. Second estimation was expected at 0.4%, but the actual result was equal to previous 0.3%.
- US Initial Jobless Claims came in higher than expected. The 7k initial claims rise to 282k in the fourth week of May extends the 11k bounce to 275k (was 274k) in the BLS survey, as claims continue to reverse the tightness in the prior three readings that started with a 262k cycle-low at the end of April. Claims are still tight versus pre-May levels however, and are displaying a cyclical downtrend that became obscured in early-April by a temporary spike around the Easter holiday period.
- US Pending Home Sales (MoM) is expected to increase by 0.9% in April compared to previous result 1.1% in March. This is a leading indicator of the housing market in the US and the economy as a whole.
- Japan National CPI Ex-Fresh Food (YoY) is expected to increase by 0.2% in April. An increase is expected after Core CPI improved to a 2.2% y/y pace in March from 2.0% y/y pace in February and 2.2% y/y in January. But the trend deceleration should be worrying policymakers.
Janne Muta
Chief Market Analyst
HotForex
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