In the European session, the only highlight was the UK Retail Sales report. The data once again beat expectations but it didn’t change anything in terms of interest rates expectations given that the BoE is now more focused on inflation.
We have also BoJ’s Ueda Press Conference coming up at 06:30 am GMT and that’s going to be interesting following the two dissenters today that voted for a hike. If Ueda downplays the dissent and sounds more patient on a rate hike, then we could see the JPY gains evaporate.
In the American session, we get the Canadian Retail Sales report. The consensus sees -0.8% in July vs 1.5% in June, and the ex-Autos m/m measure at -0.7% vs 1.9% prior. The data is unlikely to change anything for the BoC, so the market reaction will likely be muted.
Finally, we have the Trump-Xi call today scheduled for 09:00 am ET/13:00 pm GMT. This will be the first engagement since June with the topics including trade, tiktok and tech. Analysts expect limited agreements, so it might just reaffirm what we already heard from the US-China talks in Madrid earlier in the week.
