Daily Forex News -September 24, 2015

The euro turned higher after European Central Bank members showed hesitation for further comprehensive asset purchasing program. The president of ECB Mario Draghi implied that it is yet early to decide whether to extend the level of quantitative easing program as the outlook for long term inflation in the Eurozone is uncertain. Slovenian Central bank president also said it is not easy to proceed additional QE program at current state. The hawkish statements from ECB members boosted the euro, up by 0.59%. The euro gained to its U.S. counterpart, up 0.47% at the late session, recovering from its early losses.

The U.S. dollar and Japanese yen slightly fell despite increased safe asset preferences after Chinese manufacturing slowdown. The slowed data in China brought concerns to emerging countries outlook with some impacts to according currencies. Investors are looking ahead for Federal Reserve Chair Yellen’s statements as some Fed members indicated the possibility of rate hike this year.

New Zealand dollar goes higher against U.S. dollar despite lower trade balance

In New Zealand, the trade balance for August was worse than expected with widened deficit of NZD 1.035 billion, much bigger than NZD850 million expected. NZD broadly fell however gained to its U.S counterpart, traded at 0.6287, up 0.17%.

The Australian dollar held weaker after Caixin PMI data showed weakness by falling to 47 from the August level of 47.3, fell to 78-month low. AUD is very much linked to China’s economic status as Australia exports the largest amount of commodity to China. AUD/USD traded at 0.7075, down 2.1%

The pound fell to its U.S. counterpart with the impacts from oil price drop. The U.K. and Norway, the related countries with the North Sea oil production are largely influenced by the oil prices drop, thus the pound fell broadly with fallen Brent oil, down 0.79%. Meanwhile, the pound is keeping pressured with the data for public borrowing sector rose to £12.1 billion in August from £10.7 billion in earlier year. GBP/USD hit the pair’s lowest level since September 8, traded at 1.5298. The pound was steady with the euro, traded at 0.7245.

Overall, the US dollar fell 0.06%, the euro gained 0.59%, the yen fell 0.13% and the pound fell 0.79%. Emerging currencies were broadly lower with slowdown in China and the commodity price drops. South African rand fell 1.25%, Russian ruble fell 0.45%, Turkish lira fell 0.44% and Brazilian real fell steep by 2.16%. Commodity currencies also fell, Canadian dollar went down by 0.54%, New Zealand dollar by 0.82% and Australian dollar by 1.38%.