Markets await next move on trade spat.........>

FOREX: Markets await next move on trade spat

-Other than some pointed comments from ECB hawk Ewald Nowotny, it's been a

quieter morning for FX as traders await the next policy signal from Washington

or Beijing on their recent trade spat. EUR/USD briefly dropped around 40 pips as

Nowotny stated he sees the EUR depreciating against the USD as the policy gap

between the ECB and Federal Reserve widens. The drop in EUR/USD was brief and

didn't challenge yesterday's lows, but the pair remains weaker heading into NY.

-The OPEC+ meeting in Vienna has kept commodities supported from the open, with

the meeting expected to result in a boost to oil production of anywhere between

300-600,000bpd. Iran and Venezuela remain fiercely opposed to boost of a single

barrel, while Russia sit at the opposite end of the spectrum. This has kept CAD

and AUD afloat so far, but sentiment looks brittle and sensitive to headlines

this afternoon.

-Tier 1 data is few and far between so focus remains on the final day of the

ECB's Sintra conference. Appearances from ECB's Draghi, Fed's Powell, BoJ's

Kuroda, RBA's Lowe at 1430BST will keep FX interested.