European Summary and Highlights 30 Jan
The EUR rallied through the European morning session, helped by a flat Q4 Eurozone GDP number against market expectations of a 0.1% q/q decline.
European morning session
The EUR rallied through the European morning session, helped by a flat Q4 Eurozone GDP number against market expectations of a 0.1% q/q decline. Strong Spanish and Italian numbers offset the 0.3% decline in Germany. Spanish CPI was also stronger than expected at 3.5% y/y for HICP, and EUR yields were a little firmer on the back of the GDP and CPI data, allowing EUR/USD to gains around 20 pips.
Otherwise, the USD was if anything slightly stronger on the morning. GBP/USD dropped around 20 pips helped by soft UK lending data, even though M4 was slightly stronger than expected. AUD/USD also lost around 15 pips on the morning.
The only currency to outperform the EUR was the SEK, with EUR/SEK dropping around 2 figures helped by much stronger than expected Swedish consumer confidence data, which showed its highest reading since February 2022.
Asia session
On Tuesday Asia session, we saw Japanese December unemployment rate dropping to 2.4%. We also head from Japan's Kishida says will do "everything possible" to bolster household income. He highlighted the importance of wage hikes for the Japanese economics growth, which reinforces the importance of spring wage negotiation. Geopolitical tension persist with Biden expected to authorize US military strikes soon. U.S. Treasury Yields are lower across the curve, so as JGB yields. USD/JPY is trading 0.09% lower at 147.35.
Regional sentiment in Hong Kong and China remains heavy with HSI sinking close to 2%. China announced Suzhou, most populous city in Jiangsu province to remove all home buying restriction as another attempt to prompt up the local market. Yet, domestic demand seems to remain limited by falling wage. The stimulus package and the government rhetoric on financial market not being the focus has dampened sentiment. However, commodity prices are solid with lingering geopolitical tension and lend some support to the Aussie. AUD/USD is trading 0.08% higher, NZD/USD is 0.08% higher at 0.6137 while USD/CAD slipped 0.02% with oil gaining grounds. Else, EUR/USD is down 0.08% and GBP/USD is down 0.03%.