Europe Summary and Highlights 24 Apr

European morning session

The USD edged higher through the European morning, gaining around 0.2% against the EUR, GBP and CAD and around 0.4% against the AUD and scandis. USD/JPY was marginally higher, but did make a new 34 year high at 154.97. EUR/CHF gained around 10 pips.

The German IFO survey was the main news in the session, and this showed a slightly larger improvement in April than the published consensus, but was likely broadly in line with market expectations after yesterday’s stronger than expected German PMI. There was also Swedish unemployment, which saw a larger than expected rise to8.3% in March on a smoothed seasonally adjusted basis, and may have contributed to the weaker SEK.

Asia Session

The latest Australian Q1 CPI came in hotter than expected with q/q at +1.0%, above expectation of 0.8% and y/y at +3.6%, also above expectation of 3.4%. However, the data still signals a continue moderation of CPI as y/y dropped to 3.6% from 4.1% and should not be read as a turn for RBA's rate path. With regional sentiment being strong and global major equity indexes in the green, AUD/USD is trading 0.46% higher at 0.6517, NZD/USD also 0.22% higher at 0.5946 while USD/CAD is unchanged at 1.3663 as oil little changed.

USD/JPY continue to bang on 155's door. U.S. Treasury Yields are performing individually with the far end leading 10yr JGB yields recovered some opening losses but remain in the red. All eyes will likely be on BoJ's meeting but we suspect BoJ may surprise to the dovish side rather than the hawkish side with the pace of CPI showing continue moderation. USD/JPY is trading unchanged at 154.83. Else, EUR/USD is down 0.04% while GBP/USD up 0.03%.