London Open Briefing: Wednesday, August 19, 2026

The London session opens with JPY as the strongest currency over the last 24 hours, gaining 0.30%, while AUD has been the weakest, declining 0.46%. This has contributed to USDJPY moving -0.24% and AUDUSD moving -0.18% since the reference point. EURUSD has seen a +0.16% move, with EUR showing +0.18% strength. Gold, XAUUSD, is up +0.33%. The risk meter remains neutral at 0.00.

Overnight, Japan’s Core Machinery Orders significantly surprised expectations, with y/y actual at 16.9% against a 12.9% consensus, and m/m actual at 9.7% versus 7.2% consensus. In the UK, CPI y/y matched consensus at 2.9%. Australia’s Wage Price Index y/y came in at 3.2%, slightly below the 3.3% consensus, while the q/q figure met expectations at 0.8%. Switzerland reported Industrial Production y/y at 5.5%. Retail books disagree by 22 points on GBPJPY, by 31 points on NZDUSD, and by 24 points on USDCHF. The crowd shift on XAUUSD indicates the book moved 9pt toward short in 24 hours.

Looking ahead for the London session, attention will be on the Eurozone with the release of CPI y/y at 09:00 UTC, expected at 3.2%. This will be followed by ECB President Lagarde’s Speech at 10:15 UTC, and the Germany 10-Year Bond Auction at 09:30 UTC.

Traders will be particularly focused on the ECB President Lagarde Speech later this morning.

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.