Europe Summary and Highlights 15 November

European morning session

The USD was generally weaker through the European morning, with USD/JPY leading the way. JPY gains were helped by comments from Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato in Asian time, who said Japanese authorities would take appropriate action against excessive currency moves. USD/JPY dropped nearly a big figure to 155.25, while EUR/USD gained around 20 pips to 1.0575. The CAD and AUD were only slightly higher, and USD/CHF was unchanged at 0.8880.

GBP was the worst performer through the session, with EUR/GBP gaining 20 pips to 0.8340 after hitting a high of 0.8350 following weaker than expected September and Q3 GDP data. September GDP fell 0.1% and Q3 GDP was revised to 0.1% from 0.2% as a result. GBP/USD fell to a low of 1.2650 before bouncing to be only marginally lower on the session.

Asia session

On Friday, there is a slate of mixed Chinese data with the China's stats Bureau saying domestic demand is still insufficient but seeing green shoots. The Chinese equities have erased earlier attempts to close the gap to trade in the red while HSI and Nikkei is in the green. U.S. equity indexes continues its previous downward momentum and remains in the red. AUD/USD is benefiting from softer USD to trade 0.19% higher at 0.6466, NZD/USD also 0.16% higher at 0.5859 while USD/CAD is unchanged.

The one way traffic in USD/JPY finally met with verbal intervention as Japan finance minister Kato says will take appropriate action versus excessive FX moves. It is just the regular rhetoric and does not seems to be escalating or met with an actual intervention for now. Japan preliminary Q3 GDP came in at 0.2% with private consumption seems to be performing better than estimate but will need confirmation from the final GDP figure. USD/JPY is trading 0.12% higher at 156.43 with U.S. Treasury Yields performing individually across the curve and JGB yields higher. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.13% and GBP/USD up 0.09%.