Morning Report: 08.15 London
- It’s a mixed bag out there this morning with the main theme being the continued weakness in the Japanese yen. This morning’s Bank of Japan monthly report didn’t help things, with the USD/ JPY advancing another 0.30% this morning.
- The Australian dollar is the morning’s strongest currency after traders took heart from the morning’s inflation data. The AUD/ USD is up 0.33% with the AUD/ JPY up another 0.69%, capping an incredibly strong run since the 17th.
- Stock market futures have a positive bias, especially the Nasdaq 100 futures which are up nearly 1% in early trading, hitting their highest levels since 2001. Last night tech giant Apple’s earnings came in higher than analysts estimates, pushing the share price to record levels on the back of iphone 4s sales. It cements what has been a solid January for the Nasdaq 100.
Coming up today:
- We’ve an extremely bust day today starting with German Ifo business climate at 09.00 which is expected to improve slightly.
- At 09.30 we have the release of the minutes from the last MPC meeting with preliminary GDP released at the same time. A drop of -0.1% is expected.
- UK CBI industrial order expectations follow at 11.00.
- The ECB could causes some excitement with president Draghi speaking at 13.15.
- At 15.00 we have US pending new home sales.
- Today’s main item of note is the FOMC statement released at 17.30. No change is expected but the press conference at 19.15 could cause some volatility in markets.
- All day we have the World Economic Forum in Davos attended by central bankers and heads of state. There is potential for volatility if a few choice words are dropped or picked up by reporters.
Bet idea:
- This morning the USD/ JPY is pushing up to the 80.00 level for the first time in 2012. As the chart below shows though, the pairs has often recently reversed following a big spike higher, especially in the vicinity of the 80.00 level.
- A good way to play this might be a LOWER trade predicting that the USD/ JPY closes below 77.75 in 3 days time for a potential return of 106%.
- You can find direct links to this trade idea here and here.
Summary:
