Analytics, News, and Forecasts for CFD Markets: currency news — 18-09-2018.

EUR/USD has been on a downtrend since April and there aren't many reasons why it should stop, says Meera Chandan, a forex strategist at J.P. Morgan. "There is no compelling reason to think that the trend in EUR/USD will reverse," she says, adding that "risks are biased towards the continuation of the trend." Market participants have priced in fewer Federal Reserve interest rate rises over the next 12 to 18 months, Ms. Chandan notes. J.P. Morgan expects the two-year U.S. yield to reach 3.05% by the end of this year. On Tuesday, the yield is at around 2.8%. EUR/USD is last up by 0.2% to 1.1705 - via WSJ

Builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes remained unchanged at a solid 67 reading in September on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI).

"Despite rising affordability concerns, builders continue to report firm demand for housing, especially as millennials and other newcomers enter the market," said NAHB Chairman Randy Noel, a custom home builder from LaPlace, La. "The recent decline in lumber prices from record-high levels earlier this summer is also welcome relief, although builders still need to manage construction costs to keep homes competitively priced.

Higher sales in the transportation equipment and chemical industries drove the increase.

Overall, sales were up in 11 of 21 industries, representing 68% of total manufacturing sales. Non-durable goods rose 1.4% to $27.7 billion, while durable goods increased 0.5% to $30.9 billion.

Constant dollar sales increased 1.0%, indicating that a higher volume of goods was sold in July.

The gain in the transportation equipment industry accounted for more than half of the total increase in Canadian manufacturing sales in July. Sales in the industry were up 2.6% to $10.9 billion, mostly as a result of gains in the motor vehicle and the railroad rolling stock industries. In July, scheduled shutdowns for some assembly plants were shorter than in previous years. Sales in the motor vehicle assembly industry rose 3.0% to $5.4 billion, a second consecutive monthly increase. Sales in the railroad rolling stock industry were up 63.4% to $275 million, following a 30.4% decline in June. Sales in this industry tend to be volatile compared with transportation equipment as a whole.

• The 30-year bond yield was up 0.6 basis point to 3.143%, close to a more than a three-month high

House prices in Australia were down 0.7 percent on quarter in the second quarter of 2018, according to rttnews - in line with expectations and unchanged from the three months prior.

The capital city residential property price indexes fell in Sydney (-1.2 percent), Melbourne (-0.8 percent), Perth (-0.1 percent) and Darwin (-0.9 percent), and rose in Brisbane (+0.7 percent), Hobart (+3.0 percent), Adelaide (+0.3 percent) and Canberra (+0.6 percent).

On a yearly basis, house prices dipped 0.6 percent versus expectations for a loss of 0.7 percent after rising 2.0 percent in Q1.

Annually, residential property prices fell in Darwin (-6.1 percent), Sydney (-3.9 percent) and Perth (-0.9 percent), and rose in Hobart (+15.5 percent), Canberra (+3.0 percent), Melbourne (+2.3 percent), Adelaide (+2.1 percent) and Brisbane (+1.7 percent).

• Tariffs of 10% on Chinese Goods Take Effect Sept. 24, Will Rise to 25% at the End of the Year

• China Has Said It Will Retaliate With New Tariffs On U.S. Goods

• New Tariffs Follow Trump Duties Imposed On $50 Billion in Chinese Imports Earlier in Summer

EUR/USD

Resistance levels (open interest**, contracts)

$1.1830 (3185)

$1.1811 (3624)

$1.1776 (607)

Price at time of writing this review: $1.1701

Support levels (open interest**, contracts):

$1.1657 (1780)

$1.1621 (3759)

$1.1581 (5924)

Comments:

- Overall open interest on the CALL options and PUT options with the expiration date October, 15 is 90633 contracts (according to data from September, 17) with the maximum number of contracts with strike price $1,1600 (5924);

GBP/USD

Resistance levels (open interest**, contracts)

$1.3288 (2198)

$1.3256 (2228)

$1.3230 (720)

Price at time of writing this review: $1.3150

Support levels (open interest**, contracts):

$1.3104 (1040)

$1.3043 (646)

$1.3007 (1020)

Comments:

- Overall open interest on the CALL options with the expiration date October, 15 is 27111 contracts, with the maximum number of contracts with strike price $1,3200 (2902);

- Overall open interest on the PUT options with the expiration date October, 15 is 30447 contracts, with the maximum number of contracts with strike price $1,2800 (2461);

- The ratio of PUT/CALL was 1.12 versus 1.12 from the previous trading day according to data from September, 17.

* - The Chicago Mercantile Exchange bulletin (CME) is used for the calculation.

** - Open interest takes into account the total number of option contracts that are open at the moment.