Pip Diddy

Traders mostly shrugged off China’s mixed economic reports in favor of pricing in several risk-friendly market headlines.

Euro bulls jumped on Draghi’s slightly more upbeat tone during the ECB presser, focusing on the improved inflation outlook and shrugging of downgraded GDP forecasts.

Trading conditions were rather subdued during the morning London session. There were some themes playing out, though, namely the yen’s overall poor performance and the pound’s pre-BOE rise and post-BOE fall.

Talks of the U.S. renewing its trade talks with China boosted the Asian bourses today, while a positive report from Australia pushed the Aussie higher.

The Aussie held on to its gains from the earlier session and went for more as the U.S. will reportedly pursue another round of trade talks with China.

The Aussie was in recovery mode and was even the top-performing currency of the session. The pound, meanwhile, was mixed at first but ended up as the biggest loser of the session after it was swamped by late sellers

There were no new catalysts to price in during the Asian trading session, so market players mostly took cues from their U.S. counterparts.

Risk-taking from earlier trading sessions carried on throughout the day as traders seem pleased about developments in key issues like trade and Brexit.

Battle lines were clearly drawn between the safe-haven currencies and the higher-yielders during the session. And among the safe-haven currencies, it was the yen that emerged as the champion. 

Global trade-related news didn’t go away for most of the Asian session market players, but they were set aside long enough for the bulls to get some intraday momentum.