London Open Briefing: Tuesday, August 4, 2026

London traders begin their session following a generally positive tone in Asian and early European equity markets. The JP225 closed up 0.81%, while the DE40 gained 0.48%, the USTEC rose 0.41%, and the UK100 was up 0.36%. This aligns with a RISK METER reading of +0.40, indicating a risk-on sentiment. The Japanese Yen has been the weakest currency over the past 24 hours, down -0.42%, while the US Dollar leads with +0.23%. AUDUSD has seen a +0.30% gain.

Early data releases include Spain’s Unemployment Change, which registered 19.517K, significantly above the -50.784K consensus. France’s Government Budget Balance was reported at -106.8B. For Australia, the RBA Index of Commodity Prices y/y came in at 15.4%, slightly below the 16.4% consensus. Japan’s 10-Year JGB Auction yielded 2.84%, and the BoJ Monetary Base y/y was -13.8%. South Korea’s CPI y/y was 2.8%, above the 2.7% consensus. Retail positioning shows a shift in NZDUSD, with the book moving from 60% short to 54% long. Significant disagreement among retail books is noted for GBPJPY, USDJPY, and EURJPY.

Looking ahead, traders will monitor Brazilian data, including FIPE CPI m/m at 08:00 UTC and Industrial Production y/y at 12:00 UTC. Later, US Exports and Imports are due at 12:30 UTC. The most closely watched US release will be JOLTS Job Openings at 14:00 UTC, with a consensus of 7.44M.

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.