Forex news from the European trading session - 3 May 2021
Headlines:
- Germany reportedly to seek easing restrictions on those vaccinated by Friday
- German 10-year bund yields at their highest since March last year
- EU proposes to ease restrictions on non-essential travel into the bloc for those who have been vaccinated
- SNB total sight deposits w.e. 30 April CHF 701.4 bn vs CHF 701.7 bn prior
- Eurozone April final manufacturing PMI 62.9 vs 63.3 prelim
- ECB's de Guindos: We may start thinking to phase out stimulus if vaccinations, economy speeds up
- Germany reports 9,160 new coronavirus cases, 84 deaths in latest update today
Markets:
- GBP leads, JPY lags on the day
- European equities higher; S&P 500 futures up 0.5%
- US 10-year yields up 2.3 bps to 1.649%
- Gold up 0.6% to $1,779.92
- WTI up 0.4% to $63.80
- Bitcoin up 2.8% to $58,694
It was a quiet session for the most part with London out but risk sentiment in general is tipping more positively as European indices and US futures are keeping higher.
That is seeing pressure kept on the yen, not helped by rising yields, and the dollar is also holding more mixed across the board in general.
The euro and pound maintained a modest advance, though gains aren't really amounting to much from a technical perspective after last Friday's drop.
EUR/USD kept a little higher around 1.2040-50 levels while GBP/USD moved up from 1.3820 to 1.3860-70, both pairs still falling short of any test of the key hourly moving averages.
USD/JPY traded around 109.50-70 but there is some resistance around 109.63 to watch on the daily - the 61.8 retracement level of the April downswing.
Elsewhere, commodities kept solid with oil turning a little higher while gold and silver are also decent gainers on the session. Crypto was more interesting as Ethereum moved up to a record high of $3,200 with Bitcoin buoyed to near $59,000.
