Forex news for North American trading on June 8, 2020.
- Fed expands the Main Street lending program to include more businesses
- White House says Trump remains open to another virus relief package
- Druckenmiller: I've made 3% in the 40% rally from the bottom
- FX and equities are effectively the same trade now; has FX lost its touch? - BofA
- WHO says people who don't have virus symptoms rarely spread virus
- US sells 3-year notes at 0.280% vs 0.283% WI
- NBER says US recession began in February
- European equity close: A small step back after last week's leap forward
- NY Fed survey: Inflation expectations for the next year rise to 3.0% from 2.6%
- World Bank: Global economic output to fall -5.2% vs +2.5% forecast in January
- ECB's Lagarde: Confident good solution will be found on German court
- BOE Haldane: economic activity has collapsed
- ECB Lagarde: Covid-19 has led to an unprecedented contraction of economic activity
- Canada housing starts ex Quebec 132.6K vs. 166.5K estimate
- The NZD is the strongest and the EUR is the weakest as NA traders enter for the day
- White House advisor Hassett: Expects positive economic gains to continue
In other markets:
- Spot gold rose $14.04 or 0.83% at $1699.10. The high price reached $1700.60. The low extended to $1677.83
- WTI crude oil futures for July delivery are trading down $1.45 or -3.64% at $38.11. The declines come despite OPEC+ agreeing to a 9.7 million barrel reduction cut until the end of July.
The US dollar fell in New York trading, and is ending the day as the the weakest of the major currencies (beating out the EUR by the slimmest of margins). Rising stocks on the back of hopes that the coronavirus reopening will not lead to a 2nd wave, is helping the flows into the "other currencies" with the AUD and NZD tending to be the chief beneficiary currencies.
The USD fell the most vs. the JPY (which was the weakest of the majors). The USDJPY is trading down -1.21 pips or -1.1% on the day. The 100 day moving average for the pair comes in at 108.25, and was able to slow the fall. The low reached 108.23 before rebounding into the close (trading at 108.40 currently).
The USD also fell -0.85% vs. the NZD and -0.75% vs. the AUD. Both the AUDUSD and NZDUSD are trading at new recent swing high levels as investors continue to be pushed into the "risk on" trade.
For the AUDUSD it ran up to 0.70286. That is the highest level since December 31 when the price high reached 0.70314. The AUDUSD has been higher 8 consecutive trading days
For the NZDUSD, it's high today extended to 0.65665. That is the highest level since January 27. The NZDUSD has been higher for 6 consecutive trading days.
The CAD continued its move higher. It has been higher on 5 of the last 6 trading days.
The US stocks today continued their run higher with the Nasdaq index closing at a new all time high. The S&P index closed near it's session high and in doing so, erased the declines for 2019 that saw the index fall 35.41% from it's February high to the March low. The S&P index has risen by 47.5% since bottoming.
For the NASDAQ index, it is now up 10.61% on the year after rising 1.13% in trading today.
The Dow industrial average is also chipping away at its 2019 declines. It still is down -3.38% after a 1.7% gain in trading today.
European shares were mixed with the German, France, UK, and Portugal markets trading lower while Spain and Italy moved. Marginally higher
ECB's Lagarde testified to the European parliament and defended the ECB's surprise €600 billion additional bond purchases.
