Sterling rebound aborted

KBC Market Research Desk KBC Bank

USD extends cautious rebound

The dollar continued the cautious uptrend that started Monday evening on headlines that chances of John Taylor becoming Fed chairman were rising. Catalonia moved temporary to the background as a driver for trading, but probably kept euro buyers on the side-lines. Higher than expected US import prices caused some further USD gains in the afternoon, but the rally petered out later. EUR/USD closed the session at 1.1766 (from 1. 1796). USD/JPY finished almost unchanged at 112.20.

Overnight, the focus in Asia is on the opening speech of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Communist Party congress. However, there is no direct link to markets. Most Asian equity indices are trading marginally lower, with China outperforming. According to the foreign currency report of the US Treasury, no major trading partner is manipulation its currency. The assessment on the yuan was quite constructive. The US Treasury said that the yuan has recently moved in a direction that would help correct the bilateral trade imbalance with the US. USD/JPY is holding a very tight range in the 112.20/25 area. EUR/USD hovers around 1.1765.

There are no important eco data in the EMU today. US housing starts (-0.4% M/M) and building permits (-2.1%) are both expected to decline slightly. The data might be distorted by the hurricanes. Recent data from the sector were a bit diffuse and could even raise the question whether it is heading for a cooling down. Even so, we expect little impact on the dollar. The Fed will release the Beige Book preparing the November 1 policy meeting after the European close. Markets will look out for indications on price developments. There are again plenty of CB speakers including ECB's Praet and Draghi and Fed's Dudley and Kaplan. Markets will continue to look for clues on the ECB's APP. Markets considered recent indications/rumours as dovish. However, we don't expect the ECB policy makers to reveal important details. Technical considerations and global factors will continue to set the tone for USD trading. Catalonia remains a factor of uncertainty for the euro as Spain and the region are heading for a political confrontation. Earlier this week, we kept a neutral-to-tentatively negative bias for EUR/USD. We maintain this call. We remain cautious on USD/JPY. Recent price action was not convincing and event risk from whatever source might weight on the pair.

From a technical point of view, EUR/USD dropped below the 1.1823/ 1.2070 consolidation pattern, but no real test of the 1.1662 support occurred. Last week, the pair even returned (temporary?) above the 1.1823 previous range bottom, which was disappointing for EUR/USD bears. We maintain a cautious sell-on upticks bias. The pair needs to drop below 1.1670/62 support to really give comfort to EUR/USD bears. The USD/JPY momentum was constructive in September.The pair regained 110.67/95 (previous resistance), a short-term positive. The 114.49 correction top is the next important resistance. The rally clearly lost momentum last week. A break beyond 114.49 looks ever more difficult.

Sterling rebound aborted

Sterling traded with a cautiously positive bias yesterday morning, ahead of the inflation data and the hearing of BoE governor Carney before Parliament. UK September inflation printed at 3.0% Y/Y, in line with expectations. Sterling reached an intraday high just after the inflation data. BoE Carney supported a rate hike, but stressed that the BoE is still facing the difficult balance between supporting growth and having inflation above target. His comments can be considered as an indication that any policy tightening will limited. Sterling more than reversed the initial gains. Cable tumbled one big figure and closed the day at 1.3190. EUR/GBP rebounded well north of 0.89 and closed at 0.8921.

UK labour market data will be published today. Consensus expects solid job growth (148k in the 3 months to August). Wage growth is expected at a very modest 2.1% Y/Y. Usually this report has market moving potential. However, we have the impression that a big surprise is needed. A limited BoE rate hike is discounted and the report probably won't change this scenario. So, the focus for sterling trading might return to Brexit going into tomorrow's EU summit. Recent price action suggests that sustained further sterling gains might face quite heavy headwinds as long as Brexit tensions remain as elevated as they are.

EUR/GBP staged a strong uptrend from April till late August to set a top at 0.9307. Rising UK inflation data and hawkish BoE comments reinforced a sterling rebound, but this rebound has run its course. EUR/GBP supports at 0.8743 and 0.8652 proved difficult to break. We look to buy EUR/GBP on dips. The recent rebound above 0.89 improved the ST technical picture of EUR/GBP, but for now there were no convincing follow-through gains. EUR/GBP 0.9026 is the 50% retracement of the recent countermove.

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KBC Market Research Desk

KBC Bank

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