Morning brief for April 17

Sleeping Forex – the Land of Nod…The market was too sleepy to start this week with major trading centers still closed for a holiday on Monday. Markets are braced for more geopolitical tensions over North Korea, after its failure to launch a ballistic missile on Sunday. US Vice President Mike Pence fasten his eyes upon the demilitarized border between North and South Korea, reiterating that the U.S. "era of strategic patience" with Kim-Jong-un was over.

The major focus of Tokyo session was Chinese economic data. China’s economy grew 6.9% in the first quarter of 2017, a shtik above consensus forecast of 6.8%, supported by a government generous infrastructure spending spree and a frenzied housing market. Overall, a raft of the data failed to produce a notable effect as investors were somewhat cognizant of an upbeat print following a recent range of positive figures from China.

The yen extended its gains amid the escalation in geopolitical tensions. USD/JPY tumbled below 108.35 in the early hours of today’s session. The odds that quotes slide lower towards 108.00, 107.50 are quite high as the bearish phase is still intact.

The euro edged down to 1.0620 on the session. Ahead of the first round of French presidential elections scheduled for April 23, Le Pen is slowly fading with the rest of the front-runner generally unchanged. Macron, Fillon, and Melenchon are snapping on her heels striving to chase Marin out of her place as a leader in the pre-election race. EUR/USD has moved into consolidation phase trading between 1.0555 and 1.0700 levels.

Aussie spiked to 0.75990 on the strong headline in Chinese data. China’s demand for Australia’s exported industrial commodities such as iron ore was truly strong in recent months. The current rebound is to extend higher to 0.7615, 0.7630.

GBP/USD rose slightly above 1.2530. The British pound has scope to extend its gain to at least 1.2615.

USD/CAD slipped a few point in the Asian session thanks to weakening USD. Oil prices weren’t supportive. Brent oil futures fell to $55.40 from $55.80 on Monday on signs the expanding US oil production industry, undermining OPEC efforts to support prices and reduce oil glut.

The Turkish lira jumped to 3.6800 against the greenback after President Tayyip Erdogan snatched a victory in a referendum on Sunday that was organized in order to replace Turkey’s parliamentary system with the presidency and abolish the post of prime minister.

Anastasia Mileshkina