North American Summary and Highlights 10 December
Overview - The USD made gains which faded later in the session, though USD/JPY and USD/CHF held up better.
North American session
After largely ignoring a downward revision to Q3 unit labor costs to 0.8% from 1.9%, the USD picked up later in the morning, but with the exceptions of USD/JPY and USD/CHF, the USD advance struggled to hold. USD/JPY saw highs above 152 with only a modest subsequent correction, while USD/CHF moved up to .8825. EUR/USD found support at 1.05 and recovered to 1.0525 with EUR/CHF stronger but EUR/GBP weaker as GBP/USD rebounded to 1.2775 after slipping to 1.2725. A bounce in USD/CAD to near 1.42 was largely reversed. AUD/USD saw a low of 0.6365 and ended slightly weaker.
European morning session
The USD gained ground against the EUR, CHF and JPY through the European morning, but was not much changed against GBP, CAD and AUD. EUR/USD lost around 40 pips to 1.0525, and USD/JPY gained 50 pips to 151.65. USD/NOK was also fairly steady while the SEK fell with the EUR.
The NOK benefited from stronger than expected Norwegian November CPI, which saw the core measure rise to 3.0% y/y, above market expectations. Late in the session there was a very strong US NFIB small business optimism index, rising sharply to its highest since July 2021, but the USD gains generally came well before this.