Analytics, News, and Forecasts for CFD Markets: currency news — 20-02-2018.

00:00 China Bank holiday

00:30 Australia Wage Price Index, y/y Quarter IV 2.0% 2%

00:30 Australia Wage Price Index, q/q Quarter IV 0.5% 0.5%

00:30 Australia Construction Work Done Quarter IV 15.7% -10.1%

00:30 Japan Manufacturing PMI (Preliminary) February 54.8 55.2

04:30 Japan All Industry Activity Index, m/m December 1.0% 0.5%

08:00 France Manufacturing PMI (Preliminary) February 58.4 58

08:00 France Services PMI (Preliminary) February 59.2 59

08:30 Germany Services PMI (Preliminary) February 57.3 57.0

08:30 Germany Manufacturing PMI (Preliminary) February 61.1 60.6

09:00 Eurozone Manufacturing PMI (Preliminary) February 59.6 59.6

09:00 Eurozone Services PMI (Preliminary) February 58 57.6

09:30 United Kingdom Average earnings ex bonuses, 3 m/y December 2.4% 2.4%

09:30 United Kingdom Average Earnings, 3m/y December 2.5% 2.5%

09:30 United Kingdom PSNB, bln January -0.98

09:30 United Kingdom Claimant count January 8.6 4.1

09:30 United Kingdom ILO Unemployment Rate December 4.3% 4.3%

14:00 U.S. FOMC Member Harker Speaks

14:45 U.S. Manufacturing PMI (Preliminary) February 55.5 55.3

14:45 U.S. Services PMI (Preliminary) February 53.3 54.0

15:00 U.S. Existing Home Sales January 5.57 5.61

19:00 U.S. FOMC meeting minutes

• Mueller indictment says Van Der Zwaan misled investigators about communications with Manafort partner Rick Gates

Wholesale sales declined 0.5% to $63.0 billion in December, the first decrease in three months. Lower sales were recorded in five of seven subsectors, representing 65% of total wholesale sales. The personal and household goods and the miscellaneous subsectors led the decline.

In volume terms, wholesale sales declined 0.9%.

In the fourth quarter, current dollar wholesale sales increased 1.1% while constant dollar sales increased 0.7%. For both current and constant dollars, this marked the seventh consecutive quarterly increase.

Manufacturing order books and export order books remained well above their long run average, according to the latest monthly CBI Industrial Trends Survey.

According to the survey of 397 manufacturers, output grew at a healthy pace in the three months to February. Growth was broad-based with output growing in 16 out of 17 sub-sectors with growth predominantly driven by Food, Drink and Tobacco, and Motor Vehicle and Transport Equipment sub-sectors. Respondents anticipate that output growth will slow a little over the next three months, broadly matching the pace seen in September and October last year.

The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany recorded a decrease of 2.6 points in February 2018 and currently stands at 17.8 points. The indicator thus still remains slightly below the long-term average of 23.7 points. The assessment of the current economic situation in Germany decreased by 2.9 points, with the corresponding indicator currently standing at 92.3 points.

"The latest survey results continue to show a positive outlook for the German economy. The assessment of the current economic situation is still on a very high level and the economy is expected to improve in the coming six months. Economic growth in Germany is substantially driven by the very good development of both the global economy and private consumption. Inflation expectations for Germany and the Eurozone have also started to increase," comments ZEW President Professor Achim Wambach.

• Steps need to be taken to deepen economic and monetary union

• Having been a minister does not limit independence of ECB, will defend its independence

• Housing market conditions had generally eased, especially in Sydney

• Global financial conditions accommodative despite recent volatility in equity markets

• High household debt levels still warranted careful attention

• Underlying inflation seen rising gradually to 2.25 pct by mid-2020

• Further progress on inflation likely to be only gradual

• A$ still within narrow range of past couple of years

• Repeats rising A$ would impede pick up in economic growth, inflation

• Wage growth remained subdued despite strong employment, recent deals to weigh on growth

After strong growth in December 2017, exports slid seasonally in January 2018 clearly negative (- 4.2 percent, real: - 5.1 percent). Nevertheless, the Exports the second highest monthly result, thereby increasing the overall positive trend the past months confirmed. Meanwhile, imports increased to the previous month 7.5 percent (real: + 3.8 percent) and reached an all-time high. This is the last since the end In 2016, the upward trend continued to register. The contrasting course between Exports and imports resulted in the lowest surplus (1323 million Francs) in the trade balance since January 2012.

In January 2018 the index of producer prices for industrial products rose by 2.1 compared with the corresponding month of the preceding year. In December 2017 the annual rate of change all over had been 2.3%, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office.

Compared with the preceding month December 2017 the overall index rose by 0.5% in January 2018 (+0.2% in December 2017 and 0.1% in November 2017).

In January 2018 the price indices of all main industrial groups increased compared with January 2017: Prices of intermediate rose goods by 3.1%. Energy prices were up 2.2%, though the development of prices of the different energy carriers diverged. Prices of petroleum products increased by 2.3% and prices of electricity by 4.9%, whereas prices of natural gas (distribution) decreased by 0.6%. Prices of non-durable consumer goods rose by 1.5%. Prices of durable consumer goods increased by 1.5% whereas prices of capital goods increased by 1.2%.

EUR/USD

Resistance levels (open interest**, contracts)

$1.2555 (3727)

$1.2512 (2116)

$1.2484 (2664)

Price at time of writing this review: $1.2387

Support levels (open interest**, contracts):

$1.2358 (1131)

$1.2335 (2858)

$1.2308 (6241)

Comments:

- Overall open interest on the CALL options and PUT options with the expiration date March, 9 is 129052 contracts (according to data from February, 16) with the maximum number of contracts with strike price $1,2400 (6241);

GBP/USD

Resistance levels (open interest**, contracts)

$1.4182 (2388)

$1.4158 (1921)

$1.4119 (3712)

Price at time of writing this review: $1.3980

Support levels (open interest**, contracts):

$1.3947 (620)

$1.3905 (1300)

$1.3850 (799)

Comments:

- Overall open interest on the CALL options with the expiration date March, 9 is 48082 contracts, with the maximum number of contracts with strike price $1,3900 (3712);

- Overall open interest on the PUT options with the expiration date March, 9 is 44869 contracts, with the maximum number of contracts with strike price $1,3900 (2352);

- The ratio of PUT/CALL was 0.93 versus 0.94 from the previous trading day according to data from February, 16

* - 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.