European Summary and Highlights 29 Dec
European trading has seen CHF strength and JPY weakness across the board.
European session
Europe started off with a move lower on the JPY against the USD and EUR, while in contrast the CHF has moved higher against the EUR and across the board. The EUR then gained ground against the USD, partially on EUR/JPY flows. However, this is not news driven but rather flow driven and traders find it difficult to see long lasting meaning in the moves.
The mood is mixed going into next week. The USD bears sees this week price action as a taster of a week USD in January, but others are more cautious given the prospect of some short-covering before the key U.S. data next week.
Asia Session
Headlines and economics release continue to be non-existent as we approach the year end. After the roller coaster ride on Thursday, USD/JPY is acting much calmer so far in the last Asia session for the year. U.S. Treasury Yields are treading lower across curve while JGB yields opened higher. Broad risk sentiment is shaky yet it is not in the driver seat for now. USD/JPY is trading 0.06% higher at 141.45 after touching a session high at 141.66.
The PBoC has fixed onshore Yuan to be the lowest since May at 7.0827. Subsequently, Yuan traders took that as a green light to bring both the on/offshore Yuan lower. While the currency is capitalizing more on USD weakness than overall economic strength in China, it does not prevent the Aussie to gain some proxy support. The AUD/USD is trading 0.14% higher at 0.6838, NZD/USD also 0.35% higher at 0.6354 while USD/CAD is unchanged for the session. EUR/USD is up 0.02% and GBP/USD is up 0.19%.