North American Summary and Highlights 15 Mar

North American session

The USD made some general gains through the North American session, in what was generally a fairly newsless session. USD/JPY made the biggest gains, rising around 40 pips to trade above 149. The USD also made marginal gains against the commodity and European currencies, but ranges were very tight. 

There wasn’t a great deal to drive trade, with data mixed though equities lost some ground. The Empire manufacturing survey was weak at -20.9 and import prices on consensus with a 0.3% rise. Industrial production up a marginal 0.1% but with manufacturing rising by 0.8%, and, Michigan sentiment little changed at 76.5 from 76.9.

European morning session

JPY weakness on the crosses was the main feature of the European morning, with USD/JPY gaining 40 pips to 148.80 while EUR/USD gained 15 pips to 1.0890, briefly testing 1.09. Other European currencies gained with the EUR, but the AUD was little changed and the CAD only marginally higher. There was no obvious trigger for JPY weakness other than the continued strength of equity markets, with European equities rallying through the morning, but staying short of yesterday’s multi year highs. 

There was no news of any real note, with the final French CPI data for February revised slightly higher but the Italian HICP revised slightly lower. The BoE quarterly inflation expectations survey showed a drop to 3.0%, the lowest since Q4 2021.