ForexLive European FX news wrap: Dollar steadies after fall yesterday

Headlines:

• Swiss franc eases in European trading, SNB eyed tomorrow
• Post-Fed struggles see the dollar as the laggard in September trading
• BOE’s Greene: Appropriate to take a gradual approach to removing policy restrictiveness
• France September consumer confidence 95 vs 92 expected
• Switzerland September UBS investor sentiment -8.8 vs -3.4 prior
• US MBA mortgage applications w.e. 20 September +11.0% vs +14.2% prior
• OECD raises global growth outlook for 2024, sees more Fed rate cuts next year
• China call on US to stop its “unreasonable suppression” of Chinese firms

Markets:

• EUR leads, JPY lags on the day
• European equities mixed; S&P 500 futures flat
• US 10-year yields up 2.4 bps to 3.760%
• Gold flat at $2,655.73
• WTI crude down 0.7% to $71.05
• Bitcoin down 1.0% to $63,603

It was a quieter session but there were some decent markets moves to be had.

The dollar is keeping steadier after its fall in trading yesterday, with the yen and franc being the main laggards. It doesn’t owe to a further run in risk optimism or anything though, as equities remained more tepid during the session.

US futures and European indices kept lower mostly since the open but are now starting to see more two-sided action ahead of US trading. S&P 500 futures are flat after having been down by 0.3% while European stocks are now more mixed after a sluggish start to the day.

Going back to FX, USD/JPY nudged higher with the pair climbing from 143.30 to 144.30 levels now. There wasn’t much of a catalyst but US yields are keeping a little higher on the day at least. 2-year Treasury yields fell to its lowest in over two years yesterday but are now up slightly by 2 bps to 3.54%.

The Swiss franc was the other notable mover, falling across the board with eyes on the SNB meeting decision tomorrow. EUR/CHF is seen up 0.8% to test the 0.9500 level while USD/CHF is seen up 0.7% to just under 0.8500 currently.

As things stand, traders are pricing in ~51% odds of a 50 bps rate cut tomorrow even though the “expectation” is for 25 bps move.

Besides that, the higher beta currencies are taking a bit of a breather after having stormed ahead against the dollar since the Fed last week. GBP/USD is off highs above 1.3400 to 1.3370 while AUD/USD is down 0.2% after having clipped 0.6900 earlier to 0.6880 now.

And we also have EUR/USD holding steadier at around 1.1190, keeping close to large option expiries at 1.1200-10 on the day.

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.