ForexLive European FX news wrap: Yen jumps for only a moment, equities stay in retreat

Headlines:

Markets:

• USD leads, EUR lags on the day
• European equities lower; S&P 500 futures down 0.7%
• US 10-year yields up 1.9 bps to 4.972%
• Gold up 0.2% to $1,984.02
• WTI crude down 1.9% to $83.82
• Bitcoin down 1.6% to $34,107

The session started with a focus on USD/JPY breaching the 150.00 mark overnight as it seems like Tokyo were ready to loosen the shackles on the pair. The greenback also started off strongly as such with risk tones softening. Equities are in a slump as tech shares are crumbling after a poor reception to Meta and Alphabet’s earnings in the last day.

As we got into European trading, we saw USD/JPY hit an air pocket of sorts, falling from 150.70 to 149.80 in a flash. Was it BOJ intervention? It’s somewhat suggestive but the pair was quickly bought back up to 150.30-40 levels now and so whatever it was, it definitely didn’t have much lasting impact – at least for now.

That saw dollar gains cool a little and the greenback mainly consolidated its position thereafter. EUR/USD is keeping lower by 0.2% at 1.0537 while GBP/USD is also down 0.2% to 1.2085 on the day currently.

AUD/USD was hammered down to 0.6270 early on as RBA governor Bullock tempered with rate hike expectations before the pair recovered to around 0.6300 now.

But despite a more tentative tone in the last few hours, equities aren’t able to get off the floor. European indices are down over 1% mostly and US futures are teeing up a rather ugly open later for Wall Street.

The ECB is coming up next but it should not be anything too surprising. Instead, keep an eye out on US durable goods and the 7-year Treasury auction especially with yields nearing 5% for the 10-year.