North American Summary and Highlights 20 Nov

Overview - The USD was little changed overall after initially slipping on a mixed US employment report, with EUR/USD former but the commodity currencies slipping with equities.  

North American session 

September’s US non-farm payroll was stronger than expected with a rise of 119k, though offset by 33k in downward back month revisions, a rise in unemployment to 4.4% from 0.3%, and a slightly below consensus 0.2% increase in average hourly earnings. UST yields and the USD slipped on the data. Equities opened firmer, but tuned negative later in the session. 

The USD slipped on the data but USD/JPY’s dip was quickly reversed, and the pair settled near pre-data levels around 157.65. EUR/USD better sustained its gains, rising as far as 1.1550 from 1.1515 before correcting to 1.1530. EUR/GBP was little changed near .8815 after erasing a dip below .88. The reversal in equities left the commodity currencies weaker, AUD/USD near .6450 after briefly touching above .65 and USD/CAD near 1.41 after a brief dip to 1.4040 on the data. This left the USD little changed overall.  

European morning session 

The JPY recovered some ground through the European morning, with USD/JPY dropping 60 pips from the open at 157.78 to a low of 157.17 before bouncing slightly to 157.35. There was no obvious trigger for the move, but it was likely due to profit taking ahead of the US employment report with big gains being booked by JPY bears in recent days.  

The USD was also generally slightly softer, with EUR/USD gaining 5 pips to 1.1525 and similar gains being seen in the other riskier currencies, but USD/CHF was little changed as EUR/CHF stretched recent gains to a high of 0.9297.  

The only data was German PPI for October which was marginally stronger than expected at 0.1% m/m, -1.8% y/y.