Risk aversion trades are being put on after killing of Iranian military leader
The JPY is the strongest and the AUD is the weakest as North American traders enter for the day. The catalyst is US killing of Iranian military leader Soleimani. That started a risk aversion flow with gold rallying, US yields falling, crude oil surging, stocks falling and flows into the JPY and the USD.
The ranges and changes are showing some good activity in the pairs with most above their 22 day average ranges (red line in the lower chart). The JPY pairs are the ones hit the most. They are off lows but remain near the session lows.
In other markets:
- Spot gold is up $13.85 or 0.91% at $1543. That is off the highs at $1551.52
- WTI crude oil futures are up $2.33 or 3.82% at $63.50. Concerns about oil supplies from the Middle East should military issues escalate are a concern to traders.
In the US stock market, the futures markets are implying a sharply lower opening with the:
- Dow -229 points
- S&P down -30.65 points
- NASDAQ index down 98.47 points
European equities are also lower:
- German DAX, -1.39%
- France's CAC, -0.24%
- UK's FTSE 100, -0.19%
- Spain's Ibex, -0.72%
- Italy's FTSE MIB, -0.79%
In the US debt market yields are lower as investors flock to the relative safety of US treasuries, but off lowest levels. The snapshot currently shows:
European yields are also moving to the downside for the 2nd in a row:
