The USD is mostly lower
As North American traders enter for the day, the CHF is the strongest and the JPY is the weakest. The USD is mostly lower with the greenback only higher (by 0.06%) vs the JPY and unchanged vs the EUR. The major currencies are relatively close in rank with the CHF, EUR and NZD stronger and the JPY, USD and GBP lower. The CAD and AUD are mixed. The GBP - now lower, was much higher but has retraced all it's gains over the last few hours in a a sharp reversal. Anxiety about Brexit is driving the flows in that currency and it shows in the price action. The RBA kept rates unchanged as expected and said that the rates are likely to remain unchanged for the next 3 years.
The ranges and changes are showing the run up and run down in the GBP currency pairs. The GBPUSD was up over 80 pips at the high and is currently unchanged. The GBPJPY had a similar move. The EURGBP and GBPCHF saw the GBP higher and is now showing GBP declines. In other pairs, the USDCHF is trading near the lows and has been negative the whole day.
In other markets:
- Spot gold is trading up $31 or 1.75% and $1808.
- Spot silver is up $0.78 or 3.45% at $23.42.
- WTI crude oil futures are down $0.24 -0.53% $45.10
- The price of bitcoin on the Coinbase exchange is down around -$830 at $18,560. Yesterday, and earlier today, the price of toyed with the $20,000 level. The high price today reached $19,915.14 before reversing back to the downside
In the premarket for US stocks, the futures indices are implying sharply higher openings for the major US indices. The markets are cheering on the hopes for a fast approval of Covid 19 vaccines.
- S&P up 41.8 points
- NASDAQ index up 129.43 points
- Dow up 351.36 points
In the European negative markets, the major indices are also stronger:
- German DAX +0.9%
- France's CAC, +1.0%
- UK's FTSE 100, +1.9%
- Spain's Ibex, +0.7%
- Italy's FTSE MIB, +0.4%
In the US debt market, the yield curve is steeper with yields higher. The 2 – 10 year spread has risen to 70.52 basis points from 69.04 basis points at the close yesterday:
In the European debt market, the benchmark 10 year yields are mixed with the major indices within 1 basis points of the close levels from yesterday:
- Canada GDP September, +0.9%. Quarterly GDP expected of +47.9% after falling -38.7% in the 2nd quarter
- Markit PMI final is expected to remain at 56.7 (was the preliminary estimate)
- ISM manufacturing is expected to fall to 58.0 from 59.3 last month
- US construction spending expected to rise by 0.8% vs. 0.3% last month
- Fed's Powell appeared before the Senate Banking Committee along with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin
