North American Summary and Highlights 13 November

North American session

US CPI came in as expected at 00.2% overall and 0.3% ex food and energy. The USD initially saw a modest dipped as the data was seen as increasing the chances of a December Fed easing and the USD ended firmer. Comments from Fed’s Logan and Musalem were somewhat hawkish.

USD/JPY slipped below 154.50 on the CPI but later saw highs above 155.50. EUR/USD fell to 1.0565 from 1.0640. EUR/GBP and EUR/CHF were slightly weaker. AUD/USD fell below .65 and underperformed USD/CAD, despite the latter rising to near 1.40 from 1.3940 seen soon after the CPI. 

European morning session

The USD was little changed in the European morning, edging up initially but dropping back to opening levels by the end of the session. EUR/USD hit a low of 1.0594 before coming back to 1.0615 and USD/JPY hit hitting a high of 155.24 before returning to 155. Late in the session Reuters reported comments from former currency chief Masato Kanda saying Japan will act appropriately against excess movements on the foreign exchange market. He said "There is no change to our stance that we will need to respond appropriately to excess movements on the currency market as excessive foreign exchange volatility is undesirable”. However, there was no USD/JPY reaction. 

Otherwise, there was no news of any real note, with no European data. There were mildly hawkish comments from established BoE MPC hawk Catherine Mann, but there had no GBP impact, and the minutes of the Riksbank meeting also had no effect on the SEK.