If you just got to your desk for the day, don't worry, you didn't miss much. It was an exceptionally quiet session with very little to get excited about in terms of price action.Japan PM calls for ceasefire and fair peace, weighs role in Ukraine securityFX option expiries for 19 August 10am New York cutS&P affirms US AA+ rating with stable outlook despite high deficitsImportant implied volatility levels for USDCAD, EURCAD, GBPCAD and CADJPYHurricane Erin nears Bahamas, heads toward US Atlantic coastRBC 1-3 month outlook for major currenciesOpenAI launches ChatGPT Go in India for 399 rupeesPBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 7.1359 (vs. estimate at 7.1846)Preview for the Canadian CPI data later todayAustralia Consumer Sentiment 5.7% vs 0.6% priorRubio backs Ukraine security guarantees, confirms Trump urged Putin to meet ZelenskiyPBOC is expected to set the USD/CNY reference rate at 7.1846 – Reuters estimateMorgan Stanley expects a hawkish leaning Powell this weekZelenskiy pushes for real peace, signals US support on security guaranteesNATO chief calls Washington talks a breakthrough on Ukraine security guaranteesBTC showing higher timeframe divergenceEconomic Calendar for today 19 Aug 2025Finland’s president outlines progress on Ukraine security guaranteesGerman Chancellor Merz calls Ukraine talks decisive, backs security guaranteesUBS: View across major FX for the week aheadKremlin says Trump and Putin call focused on Ukraine talks and ongoing cooperationCross Asset Snapshot: choppy start across markets with eyes on jackson holeVon der Leyen stresses allied unity and security guarantees for UkraineUBS likes selling upside in USDCAD and EURNOKinvestingLive Americas FX news wrap 18 Aug: Zelenskyy/EU leaders meet with TrumpTrump pauses meeting with EU leaders to call PutinArm hires Amazon AI chip director to lead in-house chip effortGoldman expects further USD depreciation due to economic performanceCatalysts were very thin. We has a plethora of politicians all weighing in on the Trump/EU meeting, but all of them basically just said what we already knew. There were some positive-looking developments when Trump had a phone call with Putin, and the overall message from both the US and the Kremlin was positive and shows ongoing engagement.There is talk of article-5 security guarantees, but I'm sceptical on whether the US or other allies will want to commit to that given the recent history.In FX, the NZD has been the strongest currency on the session so far, with the CAD the weakest. There were no real catalysts in play and most major pairs saw very small and contained moves.Equity futures are technically trading in the red for most of the major benchmarks when looking at percentage change. Howeve, when looking at the actual price charts you'll have to really squint to see the downside.In commodities, gold was the outperformer by a whopping 0.19% so far, while oil was down close to half a percent.Treasury yields moved up slightly.All-in-all, a pretty boring session. Let's hope CA CPI can shake things up a bit later in the day. This article was written by Arno V Venter at investinglive.com.