Morning Report: USD Hampered By Less Hawkish FOMC

 | May 21, 2015 05:28AM ET

KEY DATA RELEASES TODAY (BST) :
09:00 EUR Flash Services PMI 53.9 v 53.7
09:00 EUR Flash Manufacturing PMI 51.8 v 51.9
09:30 GBP Retail Sales m/m 0.4% v -0.5%
12:30 EUR ECB Monetary Policy Meeting Accounts
13:30 USD Unemployment Claims 271K v 264K
14:45 USD Flash Manufacturing PMI 54.6 v 54.2
15:00 USD Philly Fed Manufacturing Index 8.1 v 7.5
15:00 USD Existing Home Sales 5.23M v 5.19M
18:30 USD FOMC Member Fischer Speaks
18:30 EUR ECB President Draghi Speaks
00:00 USD FOMC Member Williams Speaks

OVERNIGHT:

FOMC minutes demonstrated a reluctance by the FED to raise rates at the June meeting due to weak first quarter economic data although the board do view current weakness as transitory. USD was mixed in post minutes trading initially pulling back before settling around pre minutes levels and currently trades above pivotal 95.30 support.

EUR/USD weighed by continuing Greek concerns with Greek Fin Min Varoufakis stating that Greece would pay state pensions and workers ahead of IMF. Moody’s sees a growing risk of capital controls and deposit freezes in Greece as savers seek to withdraw cash ahead of a feared Greek Eurozone exit.

GBP/USD decline ran into bids on the first dip below 1.55 on the back of more hawkish than expected MPC minutes, interbank reports suggest decent bids down to 1.5450 level with sellers camped out towards 1.56.

USD/JPY broke its eight week range to the topside printing 121.49 before some profit taking post FOMC minutes as a decline in UST yields began to weigh on the USD advance.Another factor in the stalling was a Nikkei release claiming that the BOJ may raise economic view post Q1 GDP which many traders feel would see a push back in further monetary easing expectations

KEY TRADES:

FX Pair Short Term Position/Date Entry Level Target Stop Comments
EUR/USD Bearish Await new signal
GBP/USD Neutral Await new signal
USD/JPY Bullish Await new signal
USD/CAD Bullish Await new signal
AUD/USD Neutral Await new signal
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ANALYSIS:

EUR/USD Short Term (1-3 Days): Bearish – Medium Term (1-3 Weeks) Bearish

  • Bids towards 1.1030/60 support on the initial probe as this area supports expect retest of 1.1200/50 from below.
  • Order Flow indicators; OBV sideways, Linear Regression and Psychology bearish
  • Monitoring price action and Order Flow indicators to set shorts against 1.1550