North American Summary and Highlights 24 Nov

North American session

In a subdued session USD/JPY rose to a high of 157.19 before correcting back to around 156.80. EUR/USD peaked at 1.1550 before correcting to 1.1525. EUR/GBP erased earlier gains moving back below .88. AUD/USD reversed marginal European losses, rebounding to .6465 but USD/CAD maintained its marginal European gains, holding above 1.41.

News was limited. Fed’s Waller reiterated his support for a December easing while November’s Dallas Fed manufacturing index slipped to -10.4 from -5.0.

European morning session

The EUR and CHF made gains through the European morning, with EUR/USD up 20 pips to 1.1540 and USD/CHF down 30 pips to 0.8060. Other pairs were generally fairly steady against the USD, reversing some initial USD gains by the end of the morning, although AUD and CAD were both slightly softer, with AUD/USD losing 10 pips to 0.6450 and USD/CAD gaining 10 pips to 1.4110.

There was little news of note. The German IFO survey was slightly weaker than expected with the main business climate index dropping slightly on the month, although it has remained quite steady through the second half of the year. The drop was due to a decline in expectations, but these were coming from a high level, while there was a marginal gain in the current conditions index from low levels. Otherwise, there was a small rise in Swiss sight deposits on the week, but not a large enough one to suggest SNB intervention was behind last week’s rise in EUR/CHF.