Forex news for North American trade on October 2, 2018:
- Boris Johnson: Chequers is dangerous and unstable
- Powell Q&A: US still has meaningful fiscal space to boost demand
- Wage inflation on the agenda after Amazon gives workers a big raise
- Kaplan: Base case is for Dec hike and two more in 2019
- Kudlow: Higher wages are not inflationary
- Raab: Northern Ireland issues overblown
- ECB's Villeroy: Gradual normalization more and more warranted
- Di Maio: We will go ahead with budget plan despite threats
- Former Finnish PM Alexander Stubb makes a bid for top EU job
- ISM New York business conditions 72.5 vs 76.5 prior
Markets:
- S&P 500 down 1 points to 2933
- US 10-year yields down 3 bps to 3.05%
- Italian 10-year yields up 15 bps to 3.45%
- Gold up $14 to $1203
- JPY leads, AUD lags
The theme was a bit of retracement for recent moves, especially yen weakness. That came as Treasury yields ticked lower. USD/JPY fell back to 113.65 in a 30 pip loss after three days of gains.
Elsewhere the euro continued to slide on Italy concerns. It fell as low as 1.1505 before rebounding above 1.1550.
Cable sank early in Europe on Brexit worries but then Boris Johnson helped to stem the tide. In a speech where he hinted a prosecution of Theresa May and a scathing attack on Chequers, he then said the party should continue to back her. This lifted GBP/USD to 1.2988 from 1.2960. It then chopped sideways.
USD/CAD was consolidating below the 200-day moving average after big moves on Friday and Monday. It shopped above 1.2800 and finished at 1.2830.
AUD/USD slumped after the RBA down to 0.7160 from 0.7230 but it climbed to 0.7180 at the start of US trading then grinded up to 0.7200 before dipping back below.
Gold get some help from Italian turmoil and a bullish call from Goldman Sachs.
