Not Much Has Been Clarified – Currency Thoughts

Not Much Has Been Clarified

August 19, 2025

Yesterday’s talks between Trump, Zelensky and European leaders left the future path in the war between Russia and Ukraine murky. A scarcity of data releases today has also deprived investors of new momentum on which to trade.

In financial markets so far today, the dollar has strengthened 0.3% against the Canadian and Australian currencies, stayed flat versus sterling, and slipped by 0.2% against the yen and Swiss franc and by 0.1% relative to the euro. Ten-year sovereign debt yields are three basis points higher in Japan but down by two bps in the United States and a basis point each in Euroland’s four biggest economies. Bitcoin’s overnight slide of 1.3% extended its downward correction since last Thursday to 7.0%. Without fresh sanctions against Russia, the price of oil dropped back 1.3% as well, but gold is little changed. The DOW and Nasdaq have respectively risen and fallen by 0.6%, while the SPX and Russell 2000 show little change. Stock markets in the Pacific Rim and Europe are mostly lower, with declines falling short of 1%.

Euroland’s seasonally adjusted current account of EUR 35.8  billion in June exceeded expectations. The unadjusted surplus over the past 12 reported months amounted to EUR 328.5 billion, 16% narrower than a year earlier and equivalent to 2.0% of GDP.

Consumer price inflation in Canada decelerated to a 2-month low of 1.7% in July, marking the fourth straight reading below 2.0%. Core inflation eased 0.1 percentage point to 2.6%.

U.S. housing starts for a second straight month rose by at least 5.0%, reaching a 5-month high of 1.428 million at an annualized rate. Starts were 12.9% above their July 2024 level, whereas building permits fell by 5.9% compared to a year earlier.

Producer output prices in New Zealand increased 0.6% in the second quarter and were 4.2% above year-earlier levels.

Malaysia’s January-July trade surplus of MYR 70.4 billion was just marginally narrower than that in the first seven months of 2024.

Moldovan producer price inflation of 5.2% in July stayed within a 5.0-5.3% corridor for a fourth straight month.

Copyright 2025, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.

Tags: Canadian CPI

ShareThis

This entry was posted
on Tuesday, August 19th, 2025 at 8:46 am and is filed under New Overnight Developments Abroad – Daily Update.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.