Europe Summary and Highlights 31 March
The USD made gains against the riskier currencies through the European morning.
European morning session
The USD made gains against the riskier currencies through the European morning. AUD/USD dropped 30 pips to 0.62590, USD/CAD gained 30 pips to 1.4350, and GBP/USD lost 30 pips to 1.2925. EUR/USD was only modestly softer at 1.0820, and USD/JPY was little changed just above 149. The EUR moved slightly higher against the CHF and scandis. The USD and JP gains reflected a generally weak performance from equities, which extended the losses seen in the last few sessions.
Datawise, German March state CPI data was mixed but generally close to consensus. Italian COI was significantly stronger than expected at 0.4% m/m, offsetting the weaker French and Spanish data last week. German retail sales was a little stronger than expected on the month in February. But none of the data had any significant impact.
Asia session
Over the weekend, we heard from Trump that he is not happy with Putin and suggest more tariff. As the key date approaches this week, market will be anxious about such remarks. Risk asset slumped with oil initially opened higher before retracing its gains. Both the U.S. Treasury and JGB yields are lower and see USD/JPY down 0.43% to 149.17 with a session low at 148.72.
Market participants have kept their eyes on Trump's latest tariff update as it already shook the market in the early Asia hours. The Australian March private inflation survey came in at 2.8% y/y, suggesting an uptick from the previous month. The broad risk sentiment remain soft and see regional equities falling more than U.S. equities. AUD/USD is down 0.12% to 0.6280, NZD/USD is also down 0.12% to 0.5709 while USD/CAD is unchanged. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.13% and GBP/USD is up 0.14%.