Today’s morning London session was steady but there was enough action to keep the session interesting.

To be more specific, the euro and the pound slowly extended their gains from earlier. However, the pound emerged as the top currency of the session, thanks to a rush of pound buyers near the end of the morning London session.

Other than that, the Kiwi was able to stage a broad-based recovery after suffering losses during the earlier session. The Greenback, meanwhile, extended its losses.

  • German retail sales m/m: 0.5% vs. 0.6% expected, -0.4% previous
  • Swiss KOF leading indicator: 109.1 vs. 106.6 expected, 105.8 previous
  • Spanish flash CPI y/y: 1.6% vs. 1.7% expected, 1.8% previous
  • Spanish flash GDP q/q: 0.8% as expected vs. 0.9% previous
  • U.K. net lending to individuals: £5.5B as expected vs. £5.7B previous
  • U.K. mortgage approvals: 66.0K as expected vs. 66.6K previous

Major Events/Reports

Modest risk-taking in Europe

The major European equity indices started the new trading week flat and then had a mixed performance for a while.

However, signs of modest risk-taking soon began to show since the major European equity indices started printing gains one after the other.

And market analysts attributed the later signs of risk appetite to relief buying because of easing worries related to Catalonia, as well as demand for technology stocks because of goods news from Apple.

  • The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 was up by 0.01% 1,546.41
  • Germany’s DAX was up by 0.11% to 13,232.00
  • The blue-chip Euro Stoxx 50 was up by 0.12% to 3,658.50

Commodities rise

Commodities art starting the new trading week on a strong footing by rallying across the board.

Market analysts attributed the broad-based commodities rally to the Greenback’s slide. And for reference, the U.S. dollar index was down by 0.18% to 94.55 for the day when the session ended.

Precious metals were up despite signs of risk-taking in other markets.

  • Gold was up by 0.07% to $1,272.63 per troy ounce
  • Silver was up by 0.10% to $16.768 per troy ounce

Oil benchmarks were also in positive territory.

  • U.S. WTI crude oil was up by 0.09% to $53.95 per barrel
  • Brent crude oil was up by 0.23% to $60.27 per barrel

Base metals were actually mixed but most were in the green.

  • Copper was up by 0.26% to $3.112 per pound
  • Zinc was up by 0.95% to $3,204.00 per dry metric ton

Major Market Mover(s):

GBP

The pound steadily extended its gains during the morning London session, with speculation ahead of this week’s BOE statement being cited by most market analysts.

However, the pound had a noticeable bullish infusion near the end of the session which propelled it into the top spot, not just for today’s morning London session, but for the day (so far) as well.

There were no apparent catalysts for the later surge, though.

GBP/CAD was up by 68 pips (+0.41%) to 1.6922, GBP/AUD was up by 66 pips (+0.39%) to 1.7194, GBP/JPY was up by 53 pips (+0.36%) to 149.87

EUR

The euro has also been climbing higher since the Asian session. And it continued to do so during the morning London session, likely because of easing concerns over Catalonia, thanks to a poll over the weekend showing that support for independence waned, as well as reports during the session that there were little signs of unrest in Catalonia despite calls by the Catalan government for civil disobedience.

EUR/CAD was up by 26 pips (+0.18%) to 1.4927, EUR/JPY was up by 17 pips (+0.14%) to 132.20, EUR/AUD was up by 24 pips (+0.16%) to 1.5166

USD

The Greenback slid even lower during the morning London session while trading roughly flat against the Swissy and the Loonie, even though there were no fresh catalysts.

And according to some market analysts, the Greenback’s slide was due to profit-taking by USD bulls ahead of this week’s FOMC statement and after a couple of weeks of broad-based Greenback strength.

EUR/USD was up by 16 pips (+0.13%) to 1.1632, GBP/USD was up by 48 pips (+0.37%) to 1.3187, USD/JPY was down by 13 pips (-0.13%) to 113.58

NZD

After suffering losses during earlier session, the higher-yielding Kiwi was able to stage a broad-based recovery during the morning London session, likely because of the risk-on vibes and the commodities rally.

NZD/USD was up by 14 pips (+0.19%) to 0.6851, NZD/JPY was up by 15 pips (+0.20%) to 77.86, NZD/CAD was up by 22 pips (+0.25%) to 0.8792

Watch Out For:

  • 12:30 pm GMT: U.S. core PCE price index (0.1% expected, same as previous), personal income (0.4% expected, 0.2% previous), and personal spending (0.8% expected, 0.1% previous)
  • 9:45 pm GMT: New Zealand’s building consents (10.2% previous)