Earthquake felt in Christchurch

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - An earthquake has hit the town of Christchurch in New Zealand, with media reporting that it was the first to be felt with so much intensity in months.

According to the New Zealand Herald, "initial reports by GeoNet said it was a magnitude-4.1 shake, located 25km south-west of Christchurch, near Darfield, at a depth of 7km."

The New Zealand-based newspaper also reports on people's reaction on twitter: "Sharp jolt in Cashmere. Scared the beejesus out of me,'' said one person on the TradeMe community forum. Another saying: "A wobble and a bit of noise ... first one I've felt in months ... I actually said a rude word!''

May 17, 2013

Technical picture continues to become more bearish for EUR/USD

The EUR/USD traded in a fairly narrow range yesterday, closing flat on the session at 1.2883. After recent US economic data had come in better than expected the past few weeks, the past four days have been a different story. Economic reports out of the US came in below expectations again in the previous session, which initially helped the EUR/USD bounce off earlier lows made during the European session. The only major report due out of either region will be the Michigan Consumer Confidence data at 13:55GMT

Session Recap: Aussie hammered; Japan showing signs of recovery

Nasty day for commodity currencies “down under” such as the Aussie that has lost -0.81% in the current session alone, and about -2.77% for the week so far, last at fresh 11-month lows 0.9740. The NZD/USD posted a fresh 6-month low below the 0.81 handle, and USD/CAD a 1-month high at 1.0223. EUR/USD was more stable down 20 pips at 1.2860, while USD/JPY was mostly unchanged around the 102.25 level.