Forex news for Asia-Pacific trading on June 8, 2020:
- OPEC+ agrees to 1 month output cut extension
- McConnell told White House bill on next stimulus could approach $1 trillion
- New Zealand is now 100% COVID-19 free
- Economy minister: Japan shouldn't think about fiscal reform or tax hikes now
- Japan Q1 final GDP -2.2% vs -2.1% expected
- Japan April current account balance ¥262.7B vs ¥377.2B expected
- New Zealand Q1 volume of all buildings -5.7% q/q vs -3.0% expected
- China trade surplus hits record as medical-exports jump and crude prices plunge
- US CDC reports 29,214 new coronavirus cases. A look at the charts
Markets:
- GBP leads, CAD lags
- Nikkei +1.25%
- Gold up $3 to $1688
- WTI crude up 38-cents to $39.94
The early tone was positive for risk assets in a follow-through from Friday but it faded as Tokyo came online. The commodity currencies climbed around a quarter-cent but slowly gave it back.
The fundamental news that mattered on the weekend was from OPEC+, which came to an agreement to cut for anther month. That was mostly expected but you never know with OPEC. Crude rallied to start and took the loonie along with it but a wave of 1) profit taking 2) fear of Libyan supply sent it down sharply. After a dip to $38.80 it then bounced to $40 again as the amazing bull market in crude continues.
The pound is the only real mover so far and there isn't a great catalyst for the climb. So far it's mostly been about recouping the late-Friday loss so we'll leave it at that. In any case, Friday's high has held so far and that's the level to watch.
