Europe Summary and Highlights 9 September
The USD was generally firmer through the European morning, mainly against the JPY, with USD/JPY rising more than half a figure to 143.50.
European morning session
The USD was generally firmer through the European morning, mainly against the JPY, with USD/JPY rising more than half a figure to 143.50. USD gains elsewhere were more modest, with EUR/USD and AUD/USD both losing around 10 pips, while USD/CAD was not much changed. Scandis underperformed, with EUR/NOK rising 5 figures to 11.93 and EUR/SEK gaining 2 figures to 11.45.
There was little news of note, but the firmer tone to USD/JPY reflected a generally more positive risk environment, with equities generally firmer across the board and bond yields also generally slightly higher.
Asia Session
The Japan revised Q2 GDP came in lower than preliminary (+0.8%) at+0.7% q/q. Key areas like private consumption is also trimmed slightly by 0.1% q/q and seems to be weighing on the JPY. Later in the Asia session, headline crossed the wire that Japan chief cabinet secretary Hayashi cites BOJ's Governor Ueda saying more rate hikes ahead. It would be reinforcing the hawkish stance from the BoJ to indicate there maybe multiple hikes in the coming quarters in light of the latest strong CPI. USD/JPY continues the session's strength to trade 0.49% higher at 142.92 with USD broadly higher along U.S. Treasury Yields.
The AUD/USD is having a minor technical rebound on Monday's Asia session after being down more than a percent on Friday which proved to be short lived. Regional sentiment is weak with opening gap not being filled while U.S. three major equity indexes opened higher and continues to search for higher grounds. AUD/USD is still trading 0.04% higher at 0.6671 after touching a session high of 0.6689, NZD/USD reversed and is trading 0.17% lower at 0.6164 while USD/CAD slipped 0.05% on higher oil. Else, EUR/USD is down 0.09% and GBP/USD is down 0.1%.