- Philly Fed 12.0 vs 12.5 exp
- Empire Fed 20.21 vs 17.50 exp
- Initial jobless claims 351K vs 357K exp
- PPI 3.3%, as expected
- Reports of US/UK plan to release oil reserves, White House issues denial
- IMF approves Greek bailout, Brazil abstains in protest
- BOE’s Broadbent: risk of higher and lower inflation
- ECB’s Nowotny: Exit strategy will be gradual
- Greek unemployment rate hits 20%
- S&P rates new Greek bonds ‘CCC’
- S&P 500 gains 0.6% to 1402
- NZD leads, USD lags
EUR/USD opened at 1.3058, stuck in a sideways chop through early European trading. A rally in US Treasuries helped unwind yesterday’s broad dollar buying, sending EUR/USD through the 1.3070 and toward orders at 1.3090. Late in London trading a massive clump of stops were triggered abvoe 1.3090, sending the pair to 1.3120 in a flash. The remainder of trading has been a slow slog back to 1.3083.
USD/JPY closely tracked the US yields. The rally above 84.10 in Asia slumped back to 83.20 ahead of the London fix. The pair had risen to a US high of 83.68 on upbeat US ecodata but ticked lower afterward before a late day push to 83.50.
Cable was its usual choppy self in the early going, tumbling 30 pips to 1.5639 and then bouncing to 1.5675 for no good reason. A break of the European high at 1.5688 then triggered a US afternoon buying spree, sending the pair to 1.5736 but offers at that level (which is close to the weekly high) started a slide to 1.5715.
The Swiss franc continued to rebound, dropping USD/CHF as low as 0.9202 and EUR/CHF to 1.2065.
The commodity bloc saw substantial rallies in AUD and NZD but CAD was a laggard, in part due to the SPR report.
