Headlines:
- USD/JPY backs away from the 145.00 mark
- Dollar slips across the board ahead of North America trading
- US Treasury secretary Yellen to meet with China's Liu He on Friday
- China's Xi calls to deepen war, combat planning in visit to Eastern Theater Command
- BOE's Bailey says cannot give a date on when interest rates will start to come down
- SNB's Maechler: Further rate hikes cannot be ruled out
- Germany May factory orders +6.4% vs +1.2% m/m expected
- Germany June construction PMI 41.4 vs 43.9 prior
- UK June construction PMI 48.9 vs 51.0 expected
- US June Challenger layoffs 40.71k vs 80.09k prior
- US MBA mortgage applications w.e. 30 June -4.4% vs +3.0% prior
Markets:
- JPY leads, CAD lags on the day
- European equities lower; S&P 500 futures down 0.5%
- US 10-year yields up 2.6 bps to 3.971%
- Gold up 0.5% to $1,926.66
- WTI crude up 0.3% to $72.03
- Bitcoin up 2.0% to $31,087
It was another soggy session for risk sentiment, as equities continue to slump further after yesterday's losses. European indices are down over 1% across the board while US futures are holding lower ahead of key US data to come later today and also tomorrow.
The market continues to see higher rates and that is propping up bond yields, though the dollar is faltering today while the Japanese yen is the lead gainer instead.
Major currencies were initially little changed before the yen took charge, with USD/JPY falling just below 144.00 at the start of the session. That was then accompanied by a further dollar drop across the board later on, with the greenback seeing decent losses against the euro, pound, and antipodeans at the moment.
EUR/USD is up 0.4% to near 1.0900 while GBP/USD is up 0.5% to 1.2770 levels on the day. Meanwhile, despite the negative mood in stocks, the aussie and kiwi are holding their ground with AUD/USD up 0.4% to 0.6683 and NZD/USD up 0.6% to 0.6215 - both holding near the highs for the day.
It's tough to make out the flows in broader markets today but it could just be start of the quarter/half-year positioning perhaps. We'll get to US data later and that will make things more interesting before the non-farm payrolls tomorrow.
