North American Summary and Highlights 30 Jan

North American session

The USD gained ground against the JPY through the North American session, rising around half a figure, peaking just below 148, on the back of a stronger than expected JOLTS job openings number which pushed up US yields. Other USD pairs were not much changed, with USD gains on the data being modest and not persisting. USD/CAD slipped below 1.34. UST yield gains on the data were sustained at the front end but not at the long end.

December JOLTS job openings at 9.026m from 8.925m (revised up from 8.79m) add to the case that the labor market is seeing some acceleration, which a rise in January consumer confidence to a 2-year high of 114.8 from 108.8 (December was revised down from 110.7) also implies.

European morning session

The EUR rallied through the European morning session, helped by a flat Q4 Eurozone GDP number against market expectations of a 0.1% q/q decline. Strong Spanish and Italian numbers offset the 0.3% decline in Germany. Spanish CPI was also stronger than expected at 3.5% y/y for HICP, and EUR yields were a little firmer on the back of the GDP and CPI data, allowing EUR/USD to gains around 20 pips. 

Otherwise, the USD was if anything slightly stronger on the morning. GBP/USD dropped around 20 pips helped by soft UK lending data, even though M4 was slightly stronger than expected. AUD/USD also lost around 15 pips on the morning. 

The only currency to outperform the EUR was the SEK, with EUR/SEK dropping around 2 figures helped by much stronger than expected Swedish consumer confidence data, which showed its highest reading since February 2022.