European Summary and Highlights 20 Mar

European morning session

The USD made gains across the board through the European morning, with EUR/USD dropping around 30 pips to 1.0840. Scandis fell further, EUR/SEK gaining 4 figures to 11.38 and EUR/NOK 2 to 11.59. Other European currencies kept pace with the EUR and AUD also fell in line, but CAD and JPY were a little less weak, with USD/CAD and USD/JPY both seeing gains of 20 pips.

Newswise UK CPI data was the main release, and this came out slightly below market consensus at 3.4% y/y headline, 4.5% core. The data is unlikely to make the BoE undergo a major change in thinking, but there may be no further dissent in favour of more hikes.  Looking ahead, it is notable that favourable base effects and the drop in the energy cap should bring headline inflation down to even a touch below the 2% target by April. GBP initially fell slightly on the release, but recoveredquickly to be little changed against the EUR.

Asia session

Sell the fact trades continue to play out in USD/JPY. It has been a one way traffic since the BoJ exit negative interest rate on Tuesday. The lack of signalling further tightening seems to be the key reason to fuel such move. If the pace of rally in USD/JPY does not slow, we could expect verbal intervention reaching the headline soon. Yet, in a medium run, USD/JPY should tilt to south as the fundamental has shifted. USD/JPY is trading 0.38% higher at 151.42.

Regional sentiment is mostly positive but U.S. 3 major equity indexes are in the red. AUD/USD is unchanged for the session, NZD/USD down 0.1% to 0.6045 while USD/CAD is up 0.04% as oil is little changed for the session. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.03% and GBP/USD is up 0.01%.