London Open Briefing: Friday, August 28, 2026

The London session opens with a generally positive tone in equity markets, following gains in Asia. The DE40 and JP225 both advanced 0.55%, while the US30 rose 0.26% and the UK100 gained 0.21%. In currency markets, CAD is the strongest over 24 hours at +0.20%, with EUR as the weakest at -0.16%. The risk meter stands at +0.20, suggesting a mild risk-on sentiment. Gold, XAUUSD, is down 0.18%, and USDCHF is up 0.12%.

Early European data releases show Spain’s HICP month over month at 0.6%, with the annual rate at 4.5%. Spain’s Retail Sales year over year came in at -0.3%, missing the consensus of 0.9%. France’s GDP quarter over quarter was 0%, below the 0.2% consensus. Ahead for the Eurozone, traders will monitor Germany’s Unemployment Rate at 07:55 UTC, with a consensus of 6.3%, and Consumer Price Expectations at 09:00 UTC.

Later in the session, focus shifts to North America with Canada’s GDP m/m due at 12:30 UTC, expected at 0.2%. The US calendar includes Prelim Benchmark Payrolls Revision at 14:00 UTC and Fed Chairman Warsh Speaks at the same time. Retail positioning shows a crowd shift on XAUUSD, with the book moving 9 points toward long, and a flip on USDJPY, which went from 52% long to 54% short in 24 hours. Retail books also disagree by 20 points on EURJPY and XAUUSD.

The Jackson Hole Symposium at 16:15 UTC remains the key event for the close of the trading week.

Scheduled this session (High and Medium impact)

Times are UTC. This brief describes measured market state and the published schedule. It is not financial advice and nothing in it is a trade recommendation.