Dovish BoE Countered by Bullish Von Der Leyen

Sterling had a bumpy ride, falling against all others in G10 on the BoE rate decision, which showed that the Bank's MPC had engaged with UK regulators to gauge just how the banking infrastructure could implement rates below zero. Markets responded by selling GBP/USD well through 1.30. The downside was stemmed somewhat by an FT report citing EU's Von Der Leyen, expressing her confidence that a UK-EU trade deal could be reached.

Equity futures across the US and Europe fell, with the tech sector leading declines as the e-mini S&P inched again below the 50-dma support. Downside in equities helped support JPY throughout, which gained against all others Thursday.

Despite resilience in oil prices (WTI briefly rose above $41/bbl), CAD suffered during US hours on revisions to the July ADP report, which showed Canada's estimated gain of 1.2mln jobs revised down to a loss of 500k. USD/CAD rallied toward, but failed to break the September highs of 1.3259.

Focus Friday turns to Japanese CPI, Canadian retail sales and US prelim Uni. of Michigan confidence numbers. The Russian central bank rate decision is also due, with the majority of analysts forecasting no change at 4.25%.