North American Summary and Highlights 9 Oct

North American session

USD/JPY saw a drop to an low of 152.14 after Japan’s LDP leader Takaichi said she had no intention of triggering an excessively weak JPY, but a rebound above 153 quickly followed. The USD was stronger across the board, USD/CAD breaking above 1.40 while AUD/USD fell from above .66 to below .6550. EUR/USD fell to 1.1550 from 1.1615 while GBP/USD after failing to return to 1.34 fell below 1.33. 

There was not much news with data absent. UST yields were modestly higher and equities modestly lower. Fed’s Barr was quite hawkish on the tariff threat to inflation, but had little market impact. 

European morning session 

There was little net change in any of the majors through the European morning. USD/JPY made a new high above 153 in early trade but fell back to opening levels near 152.50 by the end of the session. Early USD strength across the board was also mostly reversed by the end of the morning, although EUR/USD was around 10 pips lower at 1.1625.  

There was little news of significance. There were some mildly dovish comments from the Fed’s Williams and mildly hawkish comments from the BoE’s Mann, but as these two are known as doves and hawks respectively, there was little market impact. There was little of note on the data front, with just German August trade data which showed a larger than expected surplus of EUR17.2bn due to weaker imports.