Europe Summary and Highlights 20 May
The USD was net little changed in the European morning, although it did dip in the early part of the session, with EUR/USD reaching a high of 1.1278 and USD/JPY seeing a low of 144.09 before the USD recovered back to opening levels near 1.1255 and 144.50.
The USD was net little changed in the European morning, although it did dip in the early part of the session, with EUR/USD reaching a high of 1.1278 and USD/JPY seeing a low of 144.09 before the USD recovered back to opening levels near 1.1255 and 144.50. There was a small decline in USD/CAD to 1.3935 and EUR/NOK to 11.57 from 11.59, but otherwise there wasn’t much change in G10 rates.
Datawise German PPI was weaker than expected at 00.6% in April, and the Eurozone current account rose to a near record 50.9bn surplus in March, but this was expected after the trade data already released and looks to be related to the timing of (mainly pharma) exports due to tariffs. Comments form the UK MPC chief economist Pill were hawkish, but unsurprising as he voted against the last rat cut.
Asia session
The RBA cut 25bps as most expected. They are seeing the trimmed mean CPI to tread towards the mid point of target range and stay there in the forecast period, while headline inflation will likely inch towards the upper band of target range. AUD/USD is trading 0.46% lower at 0.6427, NZD/USD is down 0.21% to 0.5917 while UISD/CAD is up 0.07%
USD/JPY jumped to session high of 145.50 when most Asia market comes online. Apart from broadly somewhat upbeat sentiment, we have headlines from Japanese EM Akazawa suggest talks with U.S. was indeed continuing on Monday and Nippon Steel sweetens the U.S. Steel deal with more investment. USD/JPY reversed to trade 0.28% lower at 144.44.Else, EUR/USD and GBP/USD are both up 0.08%.