Forex news for New York trade on June 23, 2020:
- Richmond Fed manufacturing index for June 0 vs. -2 estimate
- US May new home sales 676K vs 640K expected
- June prelim Markit US PMI 49.6 vs 50.0 expected
- Mnuchin suggests infrastructure won't be part of next stimulus bill
- Texas set to report a record of more than 5,000 coronavirus cases today
- Fed's Bullard: Pandemic has not turned out as bad as initially feared
- Magnitude 7.7 earthquake hits Oaxaca, Mexico
- Kudlow: Trade deal is intact; China has 'picked up its game'
- Arizona coronavirus cases rise 3591 or 6.2% on the day
- Florida coronavirus cases rise 3.3% vs 3.6% seven-day average
- California reports record 5019 new coronavirus cases 4230 yesterday
- Fed's Daly: We're prepared to do 'whatever we can' to build a bridge to health
- Fed's Bullard: Fed has deployed a lot of tools in virus response
- Philadelphia Fed nonmanufacturing index -3.6 vs. -68.6 last month
- UK PM Johnson announces relaxing of lockdown measures in England
Markets:
- Gold up $15 to $1769
- WTI crude oil down 48-cents to $40.37
- US 10-year yields flat at 0.711%
- S&P 500 up 15 points to 3133
- EUR leads, CAD lags
Gold rose to $1770 and finished at the highs of the day in a breakout above the May high to a fresh peak since 2012.
The gains came on the heels of a broad selloff in the US dollar. The dollar was hit particularly hard at the start of New York trade with some flows going through USD/JPY. One popular theory was a wave of selling related to SoftBank's sale of $21B in T-Mobile shares.
At the height of dollar selling, some extremes were reached including a one-week high in AUD/USD at 0.6975 but the pair gave back about 45 pips late as sentiment skidded. One reason for the caution was the failure of the S&P 500 to get above the recent high of 3155.
EUR/USD also hit a one-week high of 1.1350 before scaling back to 1.1306. The PMIs there were better than expected while the US reading wasn't as strong.
One currency that couldn't take advantage of the weak dollar was the loonie and that's owing to potential aluminum tariffs. Several reports say the US will reimpose them ahead of the new NAFTA deal on July 1. That threatens to reignite a trade war that most thought was over.
Cable climbed for a second day and was able to finish with most of its gains intact at 1.2517.
