ForexLive European FX news wrap: Dollar steady, stocks lose early enthusiasm

Headlines:

Markets:

• NZD leads, JPY lags on the day
• European equities lower; S&P 500 futures down 0.2%
• US 10-year yields down 1 bps to 4.252%
• Gold up 0.2% to $1,923.44
• WTI crude up 0.7% to $87.48
• Bitcoin down 0.6% to $25,840

It was a quieter session as traders are not left with much to work with towards the end of the week.

There wasn’t any major data in Europe and so, there was only the risk mood and bond market musings to really trigger any broader moves. We saw yields just holding slightly lower after yesterday’s bid, so that didn’t provide much of an impact with the dollar keeping steadier across the board.

But we at least did see equities relinquish their early gains, falling lower as the selloff this week stays the course. European indices opened with slight gains but saw their fortunes turn around and are now down around 0.2% to 0.4% on the day.

The euro, yen, and pound were all little changed against the dollar with EUR/USD keeping near the 1.0700 mark amid large option expiries. USD/JPY stuck around 147.30-40 levels mostly after recovering from its drop in Asia trading.

Instead, it was the antipodeans that are seeing some decent moves at least with AUD/USD up 0.3% to near 0.6400 and NZD/USD up 0.5% to just above 0.5900. The gains aren’t anything to shout about considering the drop in both pairs this week but it is a bit of a relief despite a significantly weaker Chinese yuan today – which fell to its lowest levels since 2007/08.