Forex news from the European morning session - 16 March 2021
Headlines:
- Fauci: No red flags on vaccine safety in the US thus far
- PBOC official calls for new laws to better deal with financial risks
- Germany March ZEW survey current situation -61.0 vs -62.0 expected
- ECB's Lane: We are not at the lower bound in terms of rates
- European assets are taking the vaccine disturbance in stride, for now at least
- Germany reports 5,480 new coronavirus cases, 238 deaths in latest update today
- BOE's Bailey: BOE will continue bond purchases in 2021
- BOJ's Kuroda: No need to change YCC framework
- RKI warns that German coronavirus cases are growing exponentially again
- BOJ's Kuroda: Asset prices are not part of BOJ's policy target
Markets:
- CHF leads, GBP lags on the day
- European equities higher; S&P 500 futures up 0.1%
- US 10-year yields down 0.9 bps to 1.597%
- Gold up 0.2% to $1,735.05
- WTI down 1.3% to $64.52
- Bitcoin down 2.1% to $55,220
It was a relatively slow and quiet session as the market kept more steady in general as the countdown to the Fed continues to play out.
European equities kept a modest advance, rebounding from the slight losses yesterday while US futures were calmer once again with tech leading the charge once again.
Nasdaq futures are up 0.5% while S&P 500 futures and Dow futures are little changed.
Elsewhere, Treasury yields nudged a little higher early on but have since moved back to being near unchanged on the day - taking the dollar up and down with it.
10-year yields bounced from 1.58% to 1.61% before settling in between that for now.
The dollar pushed higher initially with EUR/USD falling from 1.1930 to 1.1914 before bouncing to 1.1950 as the greenback gave up its slight upside push.
GBP/USD fell from 1.3875 to 1.3809 before finding some support from last week's lows and bouncing back to 1.3860-70 levels currently.
Elsewhere, USD/CAD moved up from 1.2470 to 1.2500 before retreating back to near the lows now around 1.2465-75 ahead of North American trading.
US retail sales will be the next key risk event on the agenda but besides any short-lived gyrations, I would expect the market to quickly settle back into the "wait on Fed" mode that it has been adopting since the start of the week.
