Forex news from the European trading session - 1 July 2021
Headlines:
- Talk of a proposal for OPEC+ to ease production cuts gradually by 400k bpd per month from Aug to Dec
- Saudi Arabia, Russia reportedly reach preliminary deal on raising oil output
- USD/JPY extends gains to highest level since March last year
- UK June final manufacturing PMI 63.9 vs 64.2 prelim
- BOE's Bailey: Ready to respond with policy tools if we see signs of persistent inflation
- Eurozone June final manufacturing PMI 63.4 vs 63.1 prelim
- ECB's Lagarde: Nascent recovery still faces uncertainty due to spread of virus mutations
- Switzerland June CPI +0.6% vs +0.7% y/y expected
- Germany May retail sales +4.2% vs +5.0% m/m expected
Markets:
- NZD leads, JPY lags on the day
- European equities mixed; S&P 500 futures up 0.1%
- US 10-year yields up 0.7 bps to 1.478%
- Gold up 0.3% to $1,775.71
- WTI up 2.4% to $75.20
- Bitcoin down 2.9% to $33,568
There weren't much headlines of note outside of the typical pre-OPEC+ meeting rumours, though there was some decent action in the market during the session.
Equities meandered for the most part alongside bonds, with market participants still keeping a watchful eye on tomorrow's US jobs data for further clues.
In FX though, the yen fell as USD/JPY buyers capitalised on a technical break above 111.00 yesterday to push price to its highest levels since March last year. That said, gains stalled when nearing the resistance region at the time at around 111.50-71.
Other major currencies stay little changed in general, though the pound did recover after a drop from 1.3800 to 1.3766 back to the figure level currently.
Elsewhere, talk of OPEC+ proposing a gradual easing of output cuts by 400k bpd from August to December is lighting a fire under oil as it gains by over 2% to above $75.