Forex news from the European trading session - 7 October 2021
Headlines:
- ECB accounts: Accommodative policy stance remained necessary
- US September Challenger layoffs 17.9k vs 15.7k prior
- BOE's Pill: Balance of risks shifting towards great concerns about inflation outlook
- ECB's Villeroy: Inflation should come back down below 2% within a year
- Oil slumps further after the surge in energy prices cools
- ECB's Stournaras: Inflation will fall below 2% in the medium-term
- UK September Halifax house prices +1.7% vs +0.8% m/m expected
- Germany August industrial production -4.0% vs -0.4% m/m expected
- BOJ cuts assessment for 5 of Japan's 9 regions in latest economic report
Markets:
- AUD leads, USD lags on the day
- European equities higher; S&P 500 futures up 1.0%
- US 10-year yields flat at 1.525%
- Gold down 0.1% to $1,760.40
- WTI down 1.5% to $76.28
- Bitcoin down 1.1% to $54,320
It was a quiet session for the most part with headlines not offering much but we are seeing equities push higher once again, building on yesterday's momentum.
The energy crisis in Europe has come off the boil a little, so that is helping but US futures are also powering ahead with solid gains ahead of the cash open later in the day.
The bond market was rather lazy though, as we see more of a rangebound mode there and in the dollar in general ahead of the US jobs report tomorrow.
Amid the more positive risk sentiment, the aussie and kiwi are the decent movers on the session with AUD/USD poking and prodding at the 0.7300 level. Meanwhile, NZD/USD is up 0.4% from around 0.6915 to 0.6940.
Other dollar pairs are less enthused with EUR/USD sticking around 1.1550-60 levels for the most part though GBP/USD is a little higher from 1.3585 to 1.3600-10 currently.
Elsewhere, oil prices are seen slumping further with WTI falling by 3% at one point in adrop to just under $75 before recovering to $76.20 levels now. This comes as the energy price surge cools off and that is downing some of the hype in recent weeks.
