The U.S. dollar is mostly unchanged against most of its rivals this morning.
Overview
President Trump threatened to raise current tariffs on China if Chinese leader Xi Jinping doesn’t agree to meet with him at the G20 meeting in Japan at the end of the month. The markets have appeared to shrug off the threats as the equity futures board is awash in green and even the safe-haven Japanese yen retreated. The Australian and New Zealand dollars are under pressure, however.
The economic docket failed to break the status quo this morning after PPI met expectations. Overall producer prices rose 0.1% in May, right in line with expectations. Consumer prices are set for release tomorrow and will likely have a larger impact on the greenback. There is no further data or Fed speakers on today’s docket.
What to Watch Today…
- No major events scheduled for today.
Complete Economic Calendar can be found here.
EUR
As much of Europe returns to work after a holiday yesterday, the Euro is back to familiar ranges seen much of the spring. The European Central Bank’s Olli Rehn said that “the Governing Council is determined to act and stands ready to adjust all its instruments, as appropriate.” In short, the ECB stands ready to ease its monetary policy to battle economic weakness.
We got more signs of said weakness this morning as Italian industrial production shrunk 0.7%.
GBP
The British pound briefly advanced against the U.S. dollar following stronger-than-forecast labor market data. The average earnings growth in the three months through April was 3.1% year over year, compared with the median estimate of 3.0%.
Politics are likely to dominate headlines in the coming weeks. There are ten Conservative lawmakers who have thrown their hats into the ring to become the next Prime Minister. The record field will be quickly whittled down as a new PM is likely to take over by the end of July.
