North American Summary and Highlights 10 Jul
Overview - The USD was slightly firmer, mostly versus the Europeans, assisted by a fall in initial claims.
North American session
The USD saw early gains, assisted by a fourth straight fall in US initial claims, by 5k to 227k, though later corrected from its highs. European currencies remained softer, EUR/USD near 1.17 from 1.1730 while GBP/USD fell to 1.3580 from 1.3610. USD/JPY however at 146.20 erased most of its early gains as did USD/CAD at 1.3670. AUD/USD more than fully erased an early dip below .6550, rising to .6590 as AUD/CAD reached .90. Dovish afternoon comments from Fed’s Daly downplayed inflationary risks from tariffs, and while generating little market reaction, were supportive of the USD’s move off the highs.
European morning session
A quiet European morning session saw little change in the majors, with EUR/USD and USD/JPY steady. Scandis, GBP and AUD were all a little firmer. EUR/NOK fell almost 0.5% to 11.79 after Norwegian June core CPI data came in slightly stronger than expected at 3.1% y/y, although the headline number was slightly lower than expected at 3.0%. EUR/SEK also edged a little lower in sympathy. AUD/USD gained 10 pips to 0.6560 and EUR/GBP was down 10 pips to 0.8617.
Gains for AUD and GBP may have related to strength in copper prices following the 50% tariff on imported copper announced by Trump. AUD tends to benefit from strong commodity prices, and GBP may have benefited from strength in mining stocks which pushed the FTSE 100 to a new high.