Europe Summary and Highlights 24 October
The USD was generally weaker through the European morning, with GBP and JPY the best performers, both gaining around 0.3%.
European morning session
The USD was generally weaker through the European morning, with GBP and JPY the best performers, both gaining around 0.3%. EUR/USD also edged slightly higher, recovering form initial losses after the French PMI to finish near 1.08. While the French PMI was weaker than expected, German PMI was stronger and the Eurozone composite close to consensus, while manufacturing was slightly better than expected although still at low levels. UK PMIs were weaker than expected, but still some way above the Eurozone levels. The scandis and the AUD also outperformed the EUR, while EUR/CHF was little changed.
Asia Session
Finally, we are hearing some verbal intervention from Japanese officials, with Japan finance minister Kato saying rapid moves seen in recent FX market and Japan's Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kazuhiko Aoki says watching for speculative FX moves. As pale as those words are, such are signs that the latest JPY weakness have caught their eyes. We do not see an immediate intervention in the FX market but the pace of rally will likely moderates for a while. USD/JPY is down 0.3% at 152.28 when both the U.S. Treasury and JGB yields lower.
The regional sentiment is sour and USD broadly lower on Thursday's Asia session. U.S. three major equity indexes have their toes in the green. Benefiting from the weakness in USD, AUD/USD is 0.17% at 0.6645, NZD/USD is down 0.15% at 0.6014 while USD/CAD slipped 0.09% at 1.3822as oil gains more than half a dollar. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.09% and GBP/USD is up 0.06%.