[MARKET ANALYSIS] DXY is flat amid summer doldrums and looming CPI data
DXY: Flat
- Trades little changed as markets await US CPI & PPI data over the next couple of days and, in the absence of any major fresh catalysts, while recent Fed comments continued to show that combating inflation is the main Fed priority, with Fed's Goolsbee noting that the biggest problem facing the economy right now was inflation. Elsewhere, optimism over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz continues to fade as fresh attacks are seen on ships in both key waterways in the region, and Iran reaffirmed that demands must be met for a reopening of Hormuz.
EUR/USD: Flat
- Price action is range-bound in the absence of fresh drivers and with the FX space showing signs of the summer doldrums.
GBP/USD: Flat
- Lacks direction after recent oscillations through the 1.3500 level and as the UK data calendar remains extremely quiet ahead of GDP and output data on Thursday.
USD/JPY: +0.1%
- Ekes slight gains but with price action contained within a tight range at the 159.00 handle amid a lack of key data and ongoing BoJ September rate hike bets.
Antipodeans: AUD/USD Flat / NZD/USD -0.2%
- Antipodeans are mixed following the two-way moves in AUD/USD in the aftermath of the RBA meeting and press conference, while NZD/USD retests this week's lows.
Pre-CPI sessions of this kind follow a well-worn pattern: ranges compress, positioning is squared back, and the dollar trades as a function of rate differentials parked ahead of the print rather than of fresh information. The historical read on summer sessions is that realised volatility undershoots what the calendar risk implies, then gaps on the data itself, with the first move through CPI frequently faded if the detail is mixed. On the dollar side the operative channel is the front end: Fed commentary framing inflation as the primary problem keeps the hurdle for cuts high, so a hot CPI tends to bear-steepen or flatten the front of the curve against peers depending on where growth concerns sit. USD/JPY near elevated levels with BoJ tightening bets in play is the pairing where the two-sided risk is sharpest, since a firm US print widens differentials in one direction while Japanese policy normalisation pulls the other, and official sensitivity to the exchange rate has historically risen at extremes. The Hormuz thread is the classic case where the transmission runs through freight, insurance and the energy complex into the dollar only at the second order, and fading reopening optimism has tended to support crude more durably than it moves G10 FX. Follow-ons are the CPI and PPI sequence itself, UK output data for cable's dormant calendar, and whether RBA press-conference nuance sticks or fades in the antipodeans.