North American Summary and Highlights 7 May
Overview - In a day of limited news the USD advanced as equity gains faded.
North American session
The USD saw some early slippage in North America, but ended stronger as equities gave up earlier gains before stabilizing. USD/JPY pushed up to a high of 154.75. There was not much news. Fed’s Kashkari sounded quite hawkish but March consumer credit was weaker than expected with a rise of $6.27bn.
GBP and CAD were particularly weak, GBP/USD testing 1.25 after reaching 1.2570 and USD/CAD rising to 1.2725 from 1.2675. EUR/USD was more resilient finding support near 1.0750 as EUR/GBP tested .86. AUD/USD found support near its earlier low of .6587 as AUD/CAD moved above .9050.
European morning session
A fairly quiet European morning saw a modest dip in EUR/USD early on as German factory orders data showed a weaker than expected 0.4% decline in March. But EUR/USD only fell around 10 pips and held at 1.0760.
USD/JPY started the session weaker, falling to a low of 154.00 after opening at 154.50, but bounced to 154.60 by the end of the morning. There was a similar trajectory in EUR/CHF, which dipped early on, but recovered to finish the morning a little higher at 0.9770.
Otherwise, the EUR was slightly firmer against the scandis, but there was little news of note. Eurozone retail sales were slightly stronger than expected at 0.8% m/m in March, and UK construction PMI was also stronger than expected in April, reaching its highest in more than a year, but there was no market response.