Forex news from the European trading session - 19 October 2021
Headlines:
- Evergrande deal to sell stake in property services unit said to be put on hold
- ECB's Vasle: There are early signs that wage pressures could become material
- Dollar slumps further in European trading
- ECB's Rehn: Euro area inflation is still mostly transitory
- Onshore yuan posts strongest close against dollar since mid-June
- Villeroy: No reason why ECB should raise rates between now and end of next year
- Switzerland September trade balance CHF 5.05 billion vs CHF 5.06 billion prior
- Evergrande's main unit said to have remit funds to pay onshore coupon due Tuesday
Markets:
- NZD leads, USD lags on the day
- European equities higher; S&P 500 futures up 0.5%
- US 10-year yields up 0.9 bps to 1.593%
- Gold up 0.9% to $1,779.97
- WTI up 1.1% to $83.35
- Bitcoin up 1.2% to $62,135
It was a quiet session in terms of key headlines but market action was pretty decent as the dollar slumped while equities continue to surge higher to start the week.
European indices opened with slight gains and are keeping that while US futures pushed higher on the session, setting up a more positive cash market open later.
The dollar succumbed to further pressure after a bit of a light breather yesterday, with EUR/USD climbing up from 1.1640 to 1.1669 and GBP/USD moving up from 1.3780 to 1.3833, pushing past its 100-day moving average.
USD/CAD also eased to fresh lows since early July of 1.2312 before keeping around 1.2330-40 now while the antipodeans led gains on the better risk mood.
AUD/USD pushed up to 0.7476 and is contesting its September highs of 0.7469-78 while NZD/USD is also seeing a similar move up 1% to 0.7150 and challenging its own September highs at 0.7157-70 currently.
The yen was also a laggard on the day as the bond market is little changed, with yen pairs continuing their respective technical pushes since last week.
USD/JPY kept steady around 114.00-20 but GBP/JPY is closing in on 158.00 while AUD/JPY is also pushing above 85.00 on the day.
