Europe Summary and Highlights 24 March
FX was fairly quiet through the European morning session.
European morning session
FX was fairly quiet through the European morning session. EUR/USD gained marginally to 1.0850 from 1.0840, and USD/JPY fell back a little after overnight gains, dropping to 149.60 from 149.70. GBP, NOK, CHF and AUD were the best performers, all gaining around 0.2% against the USD, with the CAD rising in line with the EUR and JPY.
The European PMI data was the main news of the morning. The Eurozone composite PMI was slightly weaker than expected, with services disappointing. However, the manufacturing index was stronger than expected, and the composite still rose slightly on the month to 50.4. The UK composite PMI came in stronger than expected at 52.0, due to a strong rise in the services index, but the manufacturing index fell back to its weakest since 2023.
Asia session
The global risk sentiment is heading to a more positive start. It seems to be triggered by the White House announcing they are narrowing its approach to April 2 tariffs set over the weekend. Headline about China considering joining the potential peacekeeping mission for Ukraine also have a potential impact on easing geopolitical tension. USD/JPY is trading 0.31% higher at 149.75 with both the U.S. Treasury and JGB yields higher.
U.S. equity indexes are upbeat on the first trading day of the week while regional equities balanced. The market seems to be happy about potentially less tariffs from the U.S. with USD trading broadly lower, though not much, against major currencies. AUD/USD is up 0.11% at 0.6279, NZD/USD is down 0.22% to 0.5720 while USD/CAD slips 0.04%. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.07% and GBP/USD is down 0.03%.