Europe Summary and Highlights 14 November

European morning session

The USD extended gains through the European morning, with EUR/USD dropping around 30 pips to 1.0515, and USD/JPY gaining 20 pips to 156.10, though the USD reached highs of 1.0509 and 156.24 respectively. There were similar moves in most of the G10 currencies, but USD/CAD held at the opening level of 1.4010 and the SEK slightly underperformed.

There was little news of note, with Swedish CPI as expected at 1.6% headline, 2.1% on the targeted CPIF measure, and Eurozone GDP confirmed at 0.4% in Q3, while Eurozone employment rose the expected 0.2%.

Asia session

The October Australian employment report has come in slightly softer than expected but remains healthy. Headline employer gains only 15.9k with unemployment rate steadies at 4.1% and participation rate slipped to 67.1% from 67.2%. The softer employment data confirms the slowing pace of wage hike in Q3 but remains to be seen if such trend continues. AUD/USD is trading 0.25% lower at 0.6469 with broadly soft sentiment, NZD/USD is down 0.34% to 0.5860 while USD/CAD rose 0.11%.

USD/JPY continues its rally and reached a new three month high at 156.07. The Japan side has been weirdly quiet but it seems we are still some way from actual intervention, given the current pace of weakness is onesided but not as rapid as before. With both the U.S. and JGB yields higher, USD/JPY is trading 0.36% higher at 156.01. Else, EUR/USD is down 0.12% and GBP/USD down 0.18%.