North American Summary and Highlights 10 July
Overview - The USD was little changed overall, advancing versus the JPY but slipping versus the GBP after comments from BoE’s Pill.
North American session
The main move of the session was a bounce in GBP/USD to near 1.2850 from 1.2810 after comments from BoE’s Pill sating the BoE was watching persistence of inflation saw bets on an August easing scaled back. Later in the session BoE’s Mann also expressed concern over inflation. With EUR/USD steady near 1.0825 EUR/GBP slipped to .8430 from .8450, though EUR/CHF was firmer at .9740 after finding support at .9700.
Fed Chairman Powell repeated Tuesday’s Senate testimony to the House generating little response in the Q+A. USD/JPY extended gains to 161.75. USD/CAD saw some slippage from 1.3640 to briefly touch below 1.3610 before correcting. With AUD/USD quiet, AUD/CAD edged lower.
European morning session
The USD was generally a little firmer through a quiet European morning, particularly against the JPY. USD/JPY gained around 10 pips from the open to 161.60, while EUR/USD was not much changed. EUR/JPY made another 32 year high at 174.91. GBP was the best performer, with GBP/USD rising 10 pips to 1.2805.
The main news was the Norwegian CPI data at the beginning of the session, which came in much weaker than expected at 2.6% y/y headline and 3.4% core. This triggered sharp NOK losses, with EUR/NOK up 7 figures on the session at 11.55.