Europe Summary and Highlights 22 August

European morning session

EUR/USD edged higher through the European morning, rising around 15 pips to 1.16.  The EUR was slightly firmer against the scandis, with EUR/NOK gaining 4 figures to 11.86 and EUR/SEK two figures to 11.1850, but was little changed on the European crosses against GBP and CHF. AUD and CAD also edged a little higher against the USD, but USD/JPY was little changed after a dip mid-session.

The main news during the morning was the downward revision of German Q2 GDP to -0.3% q/q form the -0.1% originally reported, but this had no impact on the EUR. The French business survey index was in line with expectations and unchanged on the month.

Asia session

The July Japan national CPI is showing a headline moderation of 3.1% from 3.3% y/y with ex fresh food CPI also moderated to 3.1%. However, ex fresh food & energy remains stubborn at 3.4%, stating solid underlying inflation. It continues to support the BoJ to hike. USD/JPY is trading 0.22% higher at 148.69.

It is reported that Nvidia orders halt to H20 production after China directive against purchases. U.S. equities will not like that and see U.S. three major equity indexes all in the red. Regional equities are performing individually with Hong Kong and China equities outperforming Japanese. AUD/USD is trading 0.02% higher at 0.6422, NZD/USD is trading 0.18% lower at 0.5808 while USD/CAD rose 0.03%. Else, EUR/USD is down 0.18% and GBP/USD is down 0.13%.