Europe Summary and Highlights 9 April
The USD was not much changed through the European morning, holding steady against most currencies after overnight losses.
European morning session
The USD was not much changed through the European morning, holding steady against most currencies after overnight losses. However, AUD/USD made some modest gains, rising around 30 pips to 0.6015.
There wasn’t much news of any note. BoJ governor Ueda’s press conference early in the session produced no surprises, maintaining the view that there was scope for BoJ tightening further out if the economy continues to strengthen and underlying inflation continues to rise, but noting the risks from trade and tariffs.
There was no European data of note, but European equities declined and front end EUR yields fell. But longer term EUR yields were little changed as the sharp rise in US long term yields generally pulled longer dated yields higher, with UK long gilt yields matching the rise in the US.
Asia session
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand cuts rate by 25bp to 3.75% as expected and along their own OCR forecast. Their OCR forecast continue to points towards more easing in the coming months. It is also expected they are seeing tariff's impact towards a worse economic outlook than before. NZD/USD is trading 0.07% higher as USD is sliding against major, AUD/USD also up 0.17% to 0.5968 while USD/CAD down 0.25%
On Wednesday, we are seeing another session that looks like risk asset being offered. Apart from the previous negative sentiment, Trump's remark on Chinese currency manipulation does not sound like there is any positive development. U.S. Treasury Yields are performing individually while JGB yields continue to rise. USD/JPY is down 0.84% to 144.97 with a session low at 144.57. U.S. major equity indexes are down roughly 2%, Japanese equities indexes are down 3-4% while Chinese equities recouped the opening gap and HSI stays in the red. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.95% and GBP/USD is up 0.62%.