North American Summary and Highlights 12 August
Overview - In a mostly quiet session USD/JPY saw gains in Europe that were corrected in North America.
North American session
Early in the session upward momentum in USD/JPY accelerated above 148, though as early equity gains faded and UST yields slipped a decline back to near 147.15 was seen. Otherwise there was not much movement. The commodity currencies saw marginal slippage. EUR/USD made marginal gains in a tight 1.0910 to 1.0940 range, while GBP/USD found sellers near 1.28 before ending little changed.
News was limited. The New York Fed survey of consumer inflation expectations saw a significant dip in the 3-year view to 2.3% from 2.9% but this was somewhat puzzling when the 1 and 5 year views were almost unchanged at 3.0% and 2.8% respectively.
European morning session
The USD was mixed through the European morning, gaining a little ground against JPY and GBP, but falling against the AUD and the EUR. Moves were modest in largely newsless conditions. USD/JPY rose around 15 pips to 147.35, AUD/USD rose 10 pips to 0.6595, and EUR/USD was up 5 pips while GBP/USD fell 10. EUR/CHF gains 20 pips to 0.9485.
There was little news of any note. Swiss sight deposits rose CHF10bn in the latest week, indicating that there has been no SNB intervention opposition to recent CHF gains. German WPI was up 0.3% m/m but down 0.1% y/y.