By XE Market Analysis
The Dollar has traded mixed so far today, losing ground to the Australian Dollar, holding steady against the Pound while gaining on the Yen and Canadian Dollar. The overriding theme has been Yen weakness, which has been subject to a safe-haven premium unwind following the U.S. invitation to senior Chinese officials for fresh trade negotiations. USD-JPY lifted and then settled in the mid 111.0s, back to where the pair was 24 hours ago but up from the low seen during the New York PM session yesterday at 111.11. The biggest mover has been AUD-JPY, a cross that tends to correlate with pronounced swings in risk appetite in global markets, which gained nearly 0.5% in making a high at 80.20. EUR-USD settled around 1.1620, down from yesterday's one-week high of 1.1650 yesterday amid fresh pressure on Italian assets and as markets anticipated the ECB policy announcement (expected to leave policy guidance unchanged and affirm the schedule for phasing out of QE). The Pound traded with little directional bias into the BoE policy announcement (no changes expected in either policy or guidance), with Cable settled above 1.3000 after recent bouts of Brexit-related volatility, holding below recent highs at 1.3085-88. Moody's warned about a no-deal Brexit, which barely caused a ripple as the risks are well known and is generally seen as a scenario that is unlikely to been seen. USD-CAD lifted back above 1.3000, halting a run of three consecutive down days after Canada's Foreign Minister Freeland said officials needed more time to hold technical discussions on NAFTA before a "production conversation" could be had.
