- Trump administration is said to delay tariffs on European car imports.
- US Dollar Index looks to close the day little changed near 97.50.
- 10-year T-bond yield stays near multi-week lows.
The USD/JPY erased all of the gains it posted on Tuesday today but reversed its course in the NA session and retraced its daily fall. As of writing, the pair was down 0.1% on a daily basis at 109.50.
Several news outlets today reported that Trump administration was planning to announce a 6-month delay to tariffs to be imposed on European car imports, causing stock markets to gain traction. After starting the day modestly lower, major equity indexes in the U.S. moved into the positive territory and the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were up 0.7% and 1.55%, respectively.
However, experts are also seeing this move by the Trump administration as a sign of them expecting the U.S.-China trade dispute lasting longer than expected. In fact, the 10-year Treasury Bond yield, which usually shows a strong correlation with the USD/JPY pair, struggles to pull away from the 7-week lows set earlier in the day to confirm that investors are not yet ready to jump to risk assets.
Today’s data from the U.S. revealed that retail sales in April decreased by 0.2% and the industrial production contracted by 0.5%. Nevertheless, the US Dollar Index ignored the data and was last seen flat on the day near 97.50.
Tomorrow’s economic docket will feature foreign bond investment figures from Japan and weekly jobless claims and housing starts data from the U.S., which are unlikely to receive a significant market reaction.
Technical levels to consider