North American Summary and Highlights 6 Nov
Overview - US labor market concerns weighed on the USD and equities. The latter weighed on the commodity currencies.
North American session
The Bank of England left rates unchanged but the 5-4 vote was a little closer than the markets had expected, and the GBP slipped on the news, though the fall was more than fully reversed, EUR/GBP slipping to .8790 from .88 before the decision, and GBP/USD rising to 1.3145 from 1.3095.
The USD was weaker, as were equities, due to some weak data on US labor markets. The monthly survey from Challenger, Gray and Christmas reported 153,074 layoffs in October, up sharply from 55,727 in October 2024 and the highest for an October since 2003. A survey from Revelio Labs estimated that non-farm payrolls had fallen by 9k in October, on a 22k fall in government. USD/JPY briefly touched below 153 from 153.70 while EUR/USD advanced to 1.1540 from 1.1520. Equity weakness weighed on the commodity currencies, which ended weaker if off their lows, AUD/USD near .6480 from 1.6510 and USD/CAD at 1.4120 from 1.41.
European morning session
The USD saw some modest losses against GBP and the JPY through the European morning, with the scandis also making gains, while most other pairs were little changed.
The SEK benefited from slightly higher than expected Swedish preliminary October CPI data, which was unchanged from September at 3.1% y/y, sending EUR/SEK a couple of figures lower to 10.98. The NOK gained after Norges Bank left rates and their guidance unchanged at the Norges Bank meeting, with EUR/NOK falling 3 figure to 11.71. There were no obvious triggers for the modest GBP and JPY gains of around 0.1%. The other data for the morning was German industrial production, which rose less than expected at 1.3% m/m in September after the sharp 3.7% decline in August, but had little impact as the underlying trend appears fairly steady.