Europe Summary and Highlights 16 June

European morning session

The USD was mixed through the European morning, gaining modestly against the safer havens but losing ground to the riskier currencies. EUR/USD rose 20 pips to 1.1580, while USD/JPY rose 20 pips to 144.20. USD/CHF was not much changed near 0.8115. The EUR and AUD were generally firmer across the board, but GBP, CAD and NOK managed small gains against the USD while slipping a little lower against the EUR, helped by a weaker oil price. The SEK was the best performer on the morning, with EUR/SEK falling 3 figures to 10.95. The general tone was mildly risk friendly, with equities and yields both higher.

Datawise, Swiss PPI fell 0.5% in May against a market consensus of a 0.1% rise. Eurozone labour costs were higher than expected, rising 3.4% y/y in Q1 against a consensus of 3.2%.

Asia session

Missiles continue to be firing between Israel and Iran over the weekend. It is also reported that there is a huge number of US Air Force aerial refueling tankers heading toward Europe. Despite U.S. openly stated they are not currently involved, it seems inevitable that the U.S. will enter if its interest is harmed or allies ask for help after suffering significant losses. USD/JPY initially opened ten pips lower and reversed partial losses to trade 0.02% higher to 144.06 with JGB yields outperform U.S. Treasury yields.

Major equity indexes originally opened lower as the crossfire between Israel and Iran. However, as session progress, the market seems to be calmer for there is so far little escalation. Yet, the continual exchange of rockets will be a hanging guillotine for risk asset as there is no guarantee of non-escalation. AUD/USD is trading 0.12% higher at 0.6495, NZD/USD is also trading 0.19% higher at 0.6028 while USD/CAD rose 0.02%. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.04% and GBP/USD down 0.04%. Major currency opened lower against the USD and have since closed the gap at least once.