Today started off with the EUR on the front foot after French Presidential favourite Macron emerged as the most convincing in the first French Presidential TV debate. As such, this saw EUR/USD initially trip through 1.0750, while the USD weakness helped the pair touch 1.0800.
Elsewhere, GBP surged higher after the latest CPI figures showed inflation rose to 2.3%, ahead of analyst expectations of 2.1%. Subsequently, futures are now pricing in a 25bps rate hike by Aug’18 from the BoE, although despite this, when asked about today’s CPI report Bank of England Governor Carney stated that there shouldn’t be an overreaction to one data point.
AUD has been a touch softer amid slight jawboning from the RBA in the latest meeting minutes in which they stated that the rise in the currency would complicate economic transition.
CAD briefly broke below 1.3300 against the greenback after a firm set of retail sales figures, however the strength in CAD had been curtailed by the soft crude prices. NZD received a reprieve as Fonterra GDT prices surprised to the upside with WMP prices rising over 2% despite futures pricing in around a 3-5% drop.