North American Summary and Highlights 22 October

North American session

In a quiet session the USD was modestly firmer, though equities and UST yields saw little movement. USD/JPY saw highs above 151 and settled near the figure while EUR/USD saw lows just below 1.08. 

Comments from ECB officials, Lagarde early and later Rehn and Villeroy generally supported easing hopes. BoE’s Bailey gave little away on policy but Greene was quite cautious. GBP/USD recovered from an early dip seeing EUR/GBP reversing earlier gains to return to European lows near .8320.  EUR/CHF was weaker, falling below .9350.  The commodity currencies were quiet but USD/CAD was slightly weaker.

European morning session

FX markets were generally quiet through the European morning, with little net change in most pairs. GBP was slightly weaker, with EUR/GBP rising around 15 pips to 0.8335, but EUR/USD was net little changed, reversing mid-session gains, and USD/JPY was also steady near the new highs reached overnight. 

There was no data of much significance. UK public sector borrowing in September was GBP16.6bn, slightly lower than expected.