North American Summary and Highlights 7 May

North American session

The USD saw some early slippage in North America, but ended stronger as equities gave up earlier gains before stabilizing. USD/JPY pushed up to a high of 154.75. There was not much news. Fed’s Kashkari sounded quite hawkish but March consumer credit was weaker than expected with a rise of $6.27bn.

GBP and CAD were particularly weak, GBP/USD testing 1.25 after reaching 1.2570 and USD/CAD rising to 1.2725 from 1.2675. EUR/USD was more resilient finding support near 1.0750 as EUR/GBP tested .86. AUD/USD found support near its earlier low of .6587 as AUD/CAD moved above .9050. 

European morning session

A fairly quiet European morning saw a modest dip in EUR/USD early on as German factory orders data showed a weaker than expected 0.4% decline in March. But EUR/USD only fell around 10 pips and held at 1.0760. 

USD/JPY started the session weaker, falling to a low of 154.00 after opening at 154.50, but bounced to 154.60 by the end of the morning. There was a similar trajectory in EUR/CHF, which dipped early on, but recovered to finish the morning a little higher at 0.9770. 

Otherwise, the EUR was slightly firmer against the scandis, but there was little news of note. Eurozone retail sales were slightly stronger than expected at 0.8% m/m in March, and UK construction PMI was also stronger than expected in April, reaching its highest in more than a year, but there was no market response.