Daily Market Report
09/03/2026
EUR/USD ranged in the high 1.15s to low 1.16s overnight. The Euro (EUR) picks up against a somewhat softer US Dollar (USD) on Wednesday, but upside attempts are frail, after last week’s 0.8% decline and Eurozone PMI data have failed to boost confidence in the Eurozone’s economic outlook. The EUR/US is struggling to find acceptance above the 1.1600 area, after bouncing from two-week lows at 1.1565 on Wednesday.
Analysts warn that ECB policymakers “may be more concerned about widening European bond spreads than second-round inflation risk at this point,” which in their view “argues for a less hawkish message than what markets may be expecting.”
Against that backdrop, ING adds that it “still feels risks are condensed to the downside in EUR/USD and expects a return to the 1.150-1.155 range in the near term.”
In the US, on Wednesday the ADP Employment Change report showed a 38K increase in private jobs in July, below the 47K expected and the lowest level since January.
Beyond that, New York Federal Reserve (Fed) President John Williams affirmed that the bond yields rally is due to the solid economy, rather than to inflation fears, and suggested that he will take a “wait and see” stance at the next Fed meeting, tempering expectations of an interest rate hike.
GBP/USD gains after two days of losses, trading around 1.3500 during the European hours on Thursday. The currency pair experiences an upward push as a sharp rally in the Japanese Yen (JPY) weighed heavily on the US Dollar (USD). This sudden Yen surge was largely driven by market speculation that Japanese authorities conducted a rate check, signaling potential direct intervention in foreign exchange markets.
Gains for the GBP/USD pair could remain capped as the British Pound (GBP) may face its own set of headwinds. Heightened global risk aversion, driven by energy market shocks from renewed hostilities in the Middle East, continues to threaten Sterling’s momentum. Domestically, market participants are weighing UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s address to the House of Commons, where he stressed fiscal discipline, debt reduction, and an early budget timeline to tamp down market speculation. Even with these broader fiscal concerns, sticky UK shop-price inflation keeps expectations firm that the Bank of England will deliver a 25-basis-point rate hike before the year concludes.
Japan’s top currency diplomat Atsushi Mimura reiterates on Thursday that authorities remain ready to act in the foreign exchange market, as Tokyo continues to closely monitor currency moves.
“We continue to stand ready on forex,” Mimura says, according to Reuters. Asked whether authorities had conducted rate checks with market participants, a practice that can precede an intervention, he declines to comment.
Mimura also strikes a cautious tone on current market conditions, saying he is “neither at ease nor satisfied” with the situation.
The comments therefore keep the possibility of intervention by Japanese authorities on the table, without providing confirmation that any concrete steps have already been taken.
The Japanese Yen (JPY) shows little immediate reaction to these comments. USD/JPY trades around 156.55 at the time of writing, down 1.36% on the day.
Source: FX Street