US recap: Yen selling drives USD higher after dovish BoJ lean
Aug 7 (Reuters) -The USD index rose 0.2% to 103.19 by Wednesday afternoon in North America, with the lion’s share of the gain coming from a significant 2% rise in USD/JPY. This increase followed comments from the BoJ’s Shinichi Uchida, who stated that the central bank will not hike interest rates when markets are unstable, downplaying the chance of a near-term hike in borrowing costs.
The dollar rise was also aided by rising UST yields, as the recent haven bid in U.S. Treasuries, which sent yields tumbling, continued to unwind.
EUR/USD slid a scant 0.05% to 1.0924, in early NorAm afternoon trading, despite bund yields rising slightly faster than Treasuries. Today's movement may be a outlier as markets further digest recent extreme moves. The tightening U.S.-DE bond spreads are likely to support EUR/USD, and given the evolution of U.S growth and inflation may provide fodder for another test of resistance by 1.10.
USD/JPY was the main event as the pair rose near 148 on Wednesday and held above 147 as we near the NorAm close. As noted above, less-dovish BoJ comments lifted USD/JPY as the headlines tempered U.S.-Japan rate convergence which had been a key driver of USD/JPY weakness after MoF interventions and the recent BoJ surprise hike.
GBP/USD found support once again just within its daily cloud, which spans 1.2716-1.2596, by the 100-DMA at 1.2684. Extreme long GBP positioning continues to unwind as traders await UK output data and UK and U.S. inflation data later in August.
With UK rate uncertainty after the recent 25bp BoE cut tamping down on sterling, bulls will need a rise above the daily conversion line at 1.2781 to stem the current bearish tide.
The Nasdaq and S&P indices were up near 0.5%, off earlier session highs, but the recovery from the recent carry-related volatility spike appears to be abating.
Gold rose 0.38% and is hovering near $2,400 in NorAm afternoon. Cryptos were softer reacting to higher yields with bitcoin -1.2% at $55.9k, and ether -4.4% at $2,381.
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Editing by Terence Gabriel
Paul Spirgel is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own.
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