ForexLive European FX news wrap: On to the NFP next

Headlines:

• What NFP data could surprise the market?
• Labour party wins UK general election, beating 326-seat majority threshold in the Commons
• Bitcoin tumbles to its lowest since February as downside momentum intensifies
• Fed’s Williams: Still a way to go to reach our 2% target
• Germany May industrial production -2.5% vs +0.2% m/m expected
• Eurozone May retail sales +0.1% vs +0.2% m/m expected
• UK June Halifax house prices -0.2% vs -0.1% m/m prior

Markets:

• JPY leads, USD lags on the day
• European equities higher; S&P 500 futures flat
• US 10-year yields down 1.2 bps to 4.335%
• Gold up 0.3% to $2,364.04
• WTI crude flat at $83.85
• Bitcoin down 5.4% to $55,185

It wasn’t an exciting session as markets are caught waiting on the US jobs report later today.

The hangover from the US holiday yesterday isn’t helping, with a largely more tentative mood seen among FX as well during the session. The dollar is hanging in there after the more sluggish showing from the softer US ISM services PMI earlier in the week.

EUR/USD is marginally higher by 0.1% to 1.0820 while USD/JPY is down 0.3% to 160.80 on the day.

The pound barely reacted to the results of the UK general election, which went very much as expected. It was a complete domination by Labour and GBP/USD held steady at around 1.2770-80 levels for the most part.

Meanwhile, commodity currencies also barely moved with a range of 15 pips locking in USD/CAD, AUD/USD, and NZD/USD respectively.

It’s all on to the non-farm payrolls data next to see how that will shake things up before the weekend. Will we see a continuation to the flows after the US ISM services PMI? Or is the dollar going to have a chance to bounce back?

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