North American Summary and Highlights 12 August

North American session

The US July CPI came in on expectations, up 0.1% overall and 0.2% ex food and energy, the latter 0.215% before rounding. The USD initially slipped on the data but more than fully versed its losses, moving above levels seen prior to Friday’s weak non-farm payroll report.

USD/JPY slipped below 159 before rebounding to 159.50 while EUR/USD bounced to 1.1560 before falling back to 1.1520. GBP/USD fell below 1.35 with EUR/GBP little changed. AUD/USD returned to 0.7060 after bouncing to 0.7090 while USD/CAD edged up to 1.3940 from 1.3920.

European session

Another quiet one, as the run in to the key US CPI data continues. Still choppy on oil on and around $90 amid still scattered incidents and no obvious change in the Iran stance.

Amid the quiet, gold and silver still one of the stand outs up 1% and 2 ½ % respectively, continuing the base breakout rally we suggested could be in the works some while back Still has potential as a theme in the current environment.

Some technical driven upside on AUD/NZD above 1.2 the only recent action of note. 1.21 is the higher chart level on that cross. Recent sideways summer action belied potential for some decent relative moves out of the data given that it is both high priority and the market is still overall long dollar positioned into it.