North American Summary and Highlights 14 November
Overview - The USD was firmer in Europe but struggled to sustain gains on the US data. However, the USD saw renewed gains after Fed’s Powell suggested he was not in a hurry to ease rates.
North American session
US PPI came in as expected at 0.2% overall and 0.3% ex food and energy, but with initial claims lower at 217k from 221k the USD edged higher on the data. The USD bounce did not persist for long, and EUR/USD moved up as high as 1.0580. USD/JPY was choppy, but found sellers above 156.
The afternoon saw Fed’s Powell state that the economy is not sending signals that the Fed needs to hurry to lower rates. The USD bounced on the remarks, which made a December easing look less likely. EUR/USD slipped to 1.0525 from 1.0550 while USD/JPY bounced to 156.25.
EUR/CHF was slightly stronger but EUR/GBP little changed. USD/CAD had risen to 1.4040 ahead of Powell’s comments and extended to 1.4050 after. AUD/USD in contrast had seen modest gains before Powell spoke but then slipped back .6450.
European morning session
The USD extended gains through the European morning, with EUR/USD dropping around 30 pips to 1.0515, and USD/JPY gaining 20 pips to 156.10, though the USD reached highs of 1.0509 and 156.24 respectively. There were similar moves in most of the G10 currencies, but USD/CAD held at the opening level of 1.4010 and the SEK slightly underperformed.
There was little news of note, with Swedish CPI as expected at 1.6% headline, 2.1% on the targeted CPIF measure, and Eurozone GDP confirmed at 0.4% in Q3, while Eurozone employment rose the expected 0.2%.