The USD Index has spent the day in positive territory to pare back some of yesterday’s losses amid a less negative sentiment in FX markets. After yesterday saw the second largest one day fall in its history, the Shanghai Composite closed lower by just 1.7% today, suggesting that the PBoC are able to stem the losses in Chinese equities, thereby easing some concerns. USD strength comes despite the lowest US consumer confidence index since September 2014 (90.9 vs. Exp. 100.0), with the greenback shrugging off the negative data ahead of the key risk event of the week tomorrow in the form of the Fed rate decision.
Notable underperformers against the USD include commodity currencies such as CAD and RUB, which comes amid the continued slump in oil prices, which saw Brent trade at its lowest level since February 2nd. Also of note for RUB, the Russian Central Bank rate decision is scheduled for Friday with consensus expectations being for a 50bps cut and with some suggesting a 100bps cut is possible.
In terms of the key pairs, EUR/USD ends the European session down by around 50 pips after breaking through stops at 1.1050 to the downside. GBP outperforms and ends the session in modest positive territory against the USD after Q2 GDP printed in line with expectations (0.7% vs. Exp. 0.7%), and so failing to dampen calls for a rate hike around the turn of the year.
Looking ahead, as well as the aforementioned FOMC rate decision, tomorrow sees tier 1 data in the form of GfK consumer confidence from Germany and US pending home sales. Of note, the FOMC rate decision will be accompanied by a statement but there will be no projections or press conference from the central bank.