London Open Briefing: Friday, August 7, 2026

The London session opens with a generally positive tone following the Asian handover. Gold, XAUUSD, has seen a notable gain of +1.16% since the reference point. European equity futures, UK100 and DE40, are also up +0.29% and +0.26% respectively, contributing to a +0.09 reading on the risk meter. The US Dollar is the strongest currency over the past 24 hours at +0.18%, while the Swiss Franc is the weakest at -0.32%, with USDCHF down -0.12%.

Early data releases saw Switzerland’s Consumer Climate improve to -35, better than the -36 consensus. Foreign Currency Reserves for Switzerland were reported at 768.26B. In the Eurozone, France’s Trade Balance showed a significant improvement, coming in at -5.847B against a consensus of -9.72B. France’s Exports were 54.537B and Imports 60.384B. South Africa’s Net International Reserves also exceeded expectations, reaching 71.761B.

Looking ahead, a busy North American session is anticipated. At 12:00 UTC, Mexico’s CPI m/m and CPI y/y figures are due, with consensus at 0.19% and 4.02% respectively. The main focus will be on the high-impact US and Canadian employment data at 12:30 UTC. Key releases include US Non-Farm Payrolls, expected at 85K, US Average Hourly Earnings m/m at 0.3%, and the US Unemployment Rate at 4.2%. Canada will release its Employment Change, with consensus at 17.8K, and the Unemployment Rate at 6.5%. Retail positioning data shows a shift in NZDUSD, with the crowd moving from 61% long to 51% short in 24 hours. Significant disagreement among retail books is noted for XAUUSD, NZDUSD, and AUDUSD.

Traders will closely monitor the upcoming US Non-Farm Payrolls report for market direction.

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.