Headlines:
- Spain prime minister Sánchez calls for snap election in July
- Europe looks to inflation data again later this week
- Dollar mildly lower as we get into holiday-thin trading in Europe
- Heads up: US non-farm payrolls to be released later this week
Markets:
- AUD leads, EUR lags on the day
- European equities slightly lower; S&P 500 futures up 0.2%
- Gold down 0.1% to $1,945.17
- WTI crude down 0.2% to $72.51
- Bitcoin up 4.2% to $27,885
It was a quiet session in Europe as it is a bank holiday and UK markets are also out for the day. Add that to the long weekend in the US and it made for a rather subdued session with little focus and appetite in general.
Major currencies held in tight ranges as the dollar trades mildly lower at the balance. However, the technicals continue to favour the greenback with USD/JPY holding above 140.00 despite being down 0.3% to 140.20 levels at the moment.
EUR/USD and GBP/USD are both little changed and flattish around 1.0720 and 1.2345 respectively. Meanwhile, commodity currencies are just lightly higher as US futures are also holding light gains after weekend news that the US debt ceiling deal has been done.
As US markets are also closed, we'll have to wait on tomorrow to officially kick start the trading week but keep in mind that month-end trading will make things a bit tricky before we get to inflation data in Europe and US non-farm payrolls on Friday.