Europe Summary and Highlights 11 August

European morning session

The USD was generally stronger through the European morning, with EUR/USD down 30 pips to 1.1640 and USD/JPY up 20 pips to 147.70. GBP held up better than the EUR. With EUR/GBP down 10 pips to 0.8655, and AUD/USD was also down only a modest 5 pips to 0.6520. USD/CAD rose 20 pips to 0.3770. The CHF was the weakest currency on the session, with EUR/CHF up 15 pips to 0.9425, testing the June highs. SEK was also softer, EUR/SEK gaining 2 figures to 11.17, but EUR/NOK fell back 5 figures to 11.93 after the Norwegian July CPI data came in slightly above expectations at 3.1% y/y core. 

Other than the Norwegian data there wasn’t much news of note and equity and bond markets were generally steady.

Asia session

Over the weekend, it is reported that Nvidia, AMD to pay 15% export tax to U.S. government. It is part of a deal to grant them export license to China, the 15% revenue tax will be mostly of Nvidia's H2O and AMD's MI308 chip. The news gave a poor start for U.S. tech equities and see USD jumped higher in early Asia. USD/JPY opened 15 pips lower at 147.54 before trading 0.17% lower at 147.46.

The Hong Kong High Court has ordered the liquidation of South City, the largest since Evergrande. China South City has failed to secure creditor backing its restructure after months of negotiation. Regional equities does not seem be affected significantly yet as the property sector has not been upbeat for a while. AUD/USD is trading 0.04% higher at 0.6524, NZD/USD is trading unchanged at 0.5953 while USD/CAD slips 0.05%. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.3% and GBP/USD is up 0.12%.