Europe Summary and Highlights 16 December
The USD was generally firmer through the European morning.
European morning session
The USD was generally firmer through the European morning. EUR/USD initially edged a little higher after Eurozone PMI data came in on the strong side of expectations, reaching a high of 1.0525 after opening near 1.0510, but subsequently fell back to 1.0490. USD/JPY moved up from 153.60 to 153.80. AUD/USD also fell back, from 0.6370 to 0.6350. GBP outperformed, with EUR/GBP falling back below 0.83 after rising above it on Friday following the weaker than expected GDP data, and GBP/USD was slightly higher on the morning, rising from 1.2630 to 1.2650.
The PMI data was mixed with the manufacturing indices for both the Eurozone and the UK falling on the month, but services indices rising. The composite Eurozone index rose more than a point in December, but remained below the October level, while the UK composite index was unchanged in December, still well below the October level.
Asia session
The latest PMI for Japan came in mixed but still shows improvement. Manufacturing PMI remain in contraction at 49.5 while service expands further to 51.4. However, the key remains from this week's BoJ and Fed decision and se USD/JPY currently challenging the 154 figure at 153.74, up 0.1% for the session as U.S. Treasury Yields slip and JGB yields opened higher.
On Monday, we have a slate of soft Chinese data which shows the property market remains an issue while retail sales missed estimate and industrial output stays solid. Regional sentiment is outperformed by the U.S. major equity indexes. AUD/USD is trading 0.24% higher at 0.6377, NZD/USD rose 0.34% higher at 0.5781 while USD/CAD slips 0.03%. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.18% and GBP/USD is up 0.14%. Most pair opened in favor of the USD but gaps are already closed.