North American Summary and Highlights 9 May
Overview - The USD was mostly slightly softer in a subdued day of trading.
North American session
The USD saw some early slippage with a Trump suggestion suggesting 80% tariffs on China would be appropriate not seen as constructive for upcoming weekend talks, but a dip in USD/JPY below 145 proved temporary. EUR/USD gains failed to test 1.13 and a return to near 1.1250 was seen. GBP/USD and AUD/USD were however able to sustain moves marginally above 1.33 and 0.64 respectively.
An exception to a softer USD tone was USD/CAD, which saw modest gains to 1.3935 from 1.3910. April’s Canadian employment report was soft, unemployment rising to 6.9% from 6.7% and employment managing a modest 7.4k increase only because of a rise in government jobs due to the election. There was no significant US data. Multiple Fed speakers suggested there was no urgency to change rates.
European morning session
The USD was a little softer against the EUR and JPY through the European morning, EUR/USD gaining 20 pips to 1.1245 and USD/JPY losing 20 pips to 145.25. GBP was the best performer, with GBP/USD up 30 pips to 1.3270. The CHF underperformed, with EUR/CHF gaining 20 pips to 0.9355. AUD and CAD were little changed.
EUR/NOK was slightly softer at 11.68 despite weaker than expected Norwegian CPI data which saw the core rate drop to 3.0% y/y in April, below the 3.2% consensus.