The summer lull drags on in Europe as we continue to wait on key risk events this week | investingLive

Market players are waiting for some kind of catalyst but they’re not being left with much in the first half of this week. The big mover today is the New Zealand dollar, as it is hammered down after the more dovish RBNZ policy decision earlier. NZD/USD remains down 1% at 0.5830 but not really extending losses or making back up any ground in European trading.

As for the other major currencies, it is a snoozefest with light changes among dollar pairs. EUR/USD is down 0.1% at 1.1637 with USD/JPY down 0.1% to 147.51. Meanwhile, GBP/USD is only up 0.1% at 1.3502 after the hotter inflation data earlier but is contending with large option expiries at 1.3500 on the day.

Elsewhere, the mood music is also relatively sluggish and cautious. European equities are lower in paring back some of the gains from yesterday, with US futures keeping a little lower as well after the retreat in Wall Street yesterday. Coming up later, we will have earnings from Target to be mindful of but the big one to watch this week will be Walmart tomorrow.

It’s all a waiting game with other key risk events still to follow. Later today, there is the Fed minutes before we get to PMI data from the euro area and US tomorrow. There’s also the US weekly initial jobless claims to note before we get to the main event on Friday, which is Fed chair Powell’s appearance in Jackson Hole.