European Summary and Highlights 16 September
EUR/USD gained 35 pips through the European morning, threatening the highs of the year at 1.1830 seen in July.
European morning session
The USD losses were most pronounced against the EUR and CHF, with the EUR gaining ground on the crosses. JPY, AUD, NOK and CAD were little changed against the USD, while GBP/USD gained just 20 pips and USD/SEK fell just 0.15%.
Rationale for EUR strength wasn’t clear. The September ZEW survey was a little stronger than expected, but only marginally stronger than August and not strong enough to suggest a reason for EUR strength. However, most of the EUR/USD gains did follow the data, which also included Eurozone wage data which was in line with consensus at 3.7% y/y.
Earlier, UK labour market data was also in line with consensus, showing a modest decline in payrolled employment in the August HMRC data and average earnings growth in line with consensus for August. EUR/GBP showed little initial reaction to the UK numbers.
Asia session
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi said Tokyo is pleased with the consistent implementation of its tariff agreement with the United States, providing confidence to market participants that the U.S.-Japan trade deal remains a solid foundation. USD/JPY is trading 0.21% lower at 147.03 as JGB outperform U.S. Treasury yields.
The market is relatively quiet as market participants wait for the decision for FOMC in the coming days. The broader equity spaces is performing individually with U.S. major equity indexes are in the green, so as regional equities in HK and Japan while Chinese equities lag. AUD/USD is trading 0.12% lower at 0.6662, NZD/USD is trading 0.17% lower at 0.5960 while USD/CAD slips 0.04%. Else, EUR/USD and GBP/USD are up 0.13%.