The start of the North American session
The USD is the strongest as traders in the North American session begin trading on the FOMC decision day. The AUD is the weakest. The FOMC decision will take place at 2 PM ET/1800 GMTwith the Powell press conference set for 2:30 PM ET/1830 GMT. A 25 bp cut is expected.
The GBPUSD has the largest trading range of the majors vs the USD (down -46 pips/76 pip range). UK CPI data came out lower than expected. The USDJPY is on the low spectrum with only an 18 pip trading range (up 6 pips on the day). The EURUSD is down on the day, following the lead of the GBPUSD - only at a slower pace).
In other markets:
- Spot gold is up $1.00 or 0.07% at $1502.42
- WTI crude oil is down $0.51 or -0.85% at $58.83
In the premarket for US stocks, major indices are trading lower.
- Dow industrial average -38.8 points
- S&P index -5.6 points
- NASDAQ index -17 points.
In European markets, major indices are marginally higher:
- German DAX, +0.1%
- France's CAC, +0.12%
- UK's FTSE, +0.1%
- Spains Ibex, +0.3%
- Italy's FTSE MIB, +0.7%.
In the US debt market yields are opening lower by about 2 – 3 basis points.
In the European debt market yields for the benchmark 10 year notes are also on the decline with German yields trading at -0.5% and France's CAC down to -0.22% (down -2.5 basis points and -3.7 basis points respectively).
