The dollar is holding steady on the day after having seen a bit of a rejection at key levels in trading yesterday. EUR/USD moved up after contesting 0.9900 while GBP/USD held at the March 2020 lows near 1.1400 before climbing back up to above 1.1500 now. Meanwhile, USD/JPY came within a whisker of touching 145.00 before retreating with talk of knock out options providing some defense at the figure level for the pair for now.
US equities had a good showing with the Nasdaq climbing by 2% and snapping a run of seven daily losses. The risk mood is more tentative today, with S&P 500 futures seen up 5 points, or 0.1%, currently. Meanwhile, Treasury yields are slightly lower with 10-year yields seen down 3 bps to 3.23%. The high earlier this week hit 3.36% so that is something worth noting but we’ll have to see how traders respond to the ECB and Powell’s speech later before getting to the US CPI data next week.
There’s still plenty to play for as major currencies are hoping to make a stand against the dollar but for the session ahead, all eyes will be on the euro and the ECB as they look set to hike key rates by 75 bps.
0545 GMT – Switzerland August unemployment rate
0645 GMT – France July trade balance data
1215 GMT – ECB announces September monetary policy decision, statement
1245 GMT – ECB president Lagarde press conference
That’s all for the session ahead. I wish you all the best of days to come and good luck with your trading! Stay safe out there.