Forex news for Asia trading for Tuesday 16 February 2021

Currencies and regional stocks benefitted from continued optimism over vaccine-fuelled global recovery and stimulus yet to come from the US and elsewhere. The USD slumped (not against the yen) with strong showings from the New Zealand dollar and sterling most notable. As I update AUD/USD is back above 0.7800 and USD/CAD is testing towards 1.2600.

The yen lost further ground through the session and is above 105.50 against the dollar with higher yen crosses accompanying as currencies strengthened. Commodities were higher, copper flagging demand recovery expectations yet again as it rose towards a 9 year high. Oil stabilised somewhat, not adding to its recent gains. Gold was up a few dollars, outperformed (in % rise terms) by silver today (chart below). Bitcoin jumped back above $49.5K (its dropped back a touch since)

On the Geo-political front there was a rocket attack on a coalition base in Iraq (see bullets above) but with little impact upon the USD.

Forex news for Asia tradingfor Tuesday16February 2021