Europe Summary and Highlights 24 November

European morning session

The EUR and CHF made gains through the European morning, with EUR/USD up 20 pips to 1.1540 and USD/CHF down 30 pips to 0.8060. Other pairs were generally fairly steady against the USD, reversing some initial USD gains by the end of the morning, although AUD and CAD were both slightly softer, with AUD/USD losing 10 pips to 0.6450 and USD/CAD gaining 10 pips to 1.4110.

There was little news of note. The German IFO survey was slightly weaker than expected with the main business climate index dropping slightly on the month, although it has remained quite steady through the second half of the year. The drop was due to a decline in expectations, but these were coming from a high level, while there was a marginal gain in the current conditions index from low levels. Otherwise, there was a small rise in Swiss sight deposits on the week, but not a large enough one to suggest SNB intervention was behind last week’s rise in EUR/CHF.

Asia session

While the Japanese market is closed on Monday to observe Labor Thanksgiving Day, USD/JPY is searching for new highs as early optimism for risk creeps in. U.S. major equity indexes gap higher at the opening as market participants seems to be relieved from their panic selling. USD/JPY is trading 0.14% higher at 156.55.

From the geopolitical front, the U.S. is once again upbeat about a potential peace plan between Ukraine and Russia. Though we all know the core issues of territory and security remain very sticky and may not see further progress soon. Major U.S. equity indexes have remain in the green after opening higher with regional equities performing individually as Trump seems to be approving NVidia to sell certain chips to China. AUD/USD is trading 0.06% higher at 0.6459, NZD/USD is trading 0.13% lower while USD/CAD rises 0.06%. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.1% and gBP/USD is up 0.03%.