North American Summary and Highlights 2 October
Overview - USD/JPY was the main mover, supported by comments from BoJ’s Ueda and later US ADP employment data, rising above 146. Elsewhere moves were modest.
North American session
US ADP employment data with a rise of 143k exceeded expectations, and lifted USD/JPY above 145. USD/JPY continued to steadily advance, moving well above 146 in the afternoon. USD gains elsewhere were relatively modest. EUR/USD slipped to 1.1040 from 1.1075. The EUR was marginally firmer against the CHF and marginally weaker against the GBP. AUD/USD saw only marginal losses but found sellers at .69. USD/CAD saw little response to the data, but moved above 1.35 in the afternoon as oil corrected lower.
European morning session
USD/JPY gained around half a figure through the European morning session, helped by comments from BoJ governor Ueda who said that markets were still unstable – seen as code for indicating that BoJ policy would remain accommodative for the time being. However, Ueda also said that FX moves were having an increasing impact on inflation, suggesting that significant JPY losses might lead to tighter policy, while JPY gains could prevent early BoJ tightening.
Otherwise, the USD as generally not much changed, but there were some modest gains for the scandis, with EUR/NOK dropping around 5 figures and EUR/SEK around 2 figures, while EUR/CHF edged up around 20 pips to 0.9375. But although the JPY and CHF were weaker, equities continued to edge lower and the oil price continued to edge higher.