Europe Summary and Highlights 26 February

European morning session

Another quiet morning in Europe saw little change in the majors. The only significant moves were in the commodity currencies, with both AUD and CAD around 0.2% weaker. However, this was not a function of general risk aversion, as EUR/CHF also edged a little higher.

Datawise, French consumer confidence data showed a small rise, while German confidence fell to its lowest for a year. Nevertheless, European equities performed strongly, gaining around 1% through the morning.

Asia session

The Australian January monthly CPI has come in lower than estimate at 2.5% y/y, staying within the target range of RBA. After the first hawkish cut, we will need to see more moderation of inflation to envision another cut from the RBA and this data is what doves like to see. AUD/USD is down 0.25% at 0.6328, NZD/USD is also down 0.24% at 0.5711 while USD/CAD rose 0.09%.

The USD is trading broadly higher on Wednesday with Trump scoring another on The House passing the Republican Budget. On the other hand, we have China's remark on Canadian's unilateral trade sanctions which seems to be putting Canada between a rock and a hard place. USD/JPY is trading 0.36% higher at 149.56 as the U.S. Treasury Yields outperform their JGB counterpart. else, EUR/USD is down 0.18% and GBP/USD is down 0.22%.