Forex news from the European trading session - 20 May 2021
Headlines:
- UK May CBI trends total orders 17 vs 0 expected
- ECB's Lane: Supply bottlenecks causing price rise is not real inflation
- Eurozone March current account balance €17.8 billion vs €25.9 billion prior
- Germany April PPI +0.8% vs +0.8% m/m expected
- What did the Fed minutes tell us yesterday?
- Germany reports 12,298 new coronavirus cases, 237 deaths in latest update today
Markets:
- CHF leads, USD lags on the day
- European equities higher; S&P 500 futures down 0.2%
- US 10-year yields down 0.9 bps to 1.663%
- Gold up 0.2% to $1,872.40
- WTI down 1.1% to $62.70
- Bitcoin up 5.5% to $40,450
The market is sensing stability after a taste of risk aversion for the most part yesterday. US stocks bounced late on yesterday but that failed to carry through today though we are seeing some bids come through ahead of North American trading.
US futures slipped d a little mid-way through the session before recovering quite a bit of ground as Nasdaq futures pare losses of around 0.6% to flat levels now.
Dip buyers are certainly not throwing in the towel just yet so look out for that later.
Major currencies kept steadier with the dollar giving back some ground across the board but nothing too outstanding. EUR/USD inched a little higher from 1.2180 to 1.2200 and is holding thereabouts at the moment.
Meanwhile, USD/JPY eased slightly from 109.15 to 108.90 while AUD/USD held a modest advance from 0.7730 to 0.7760 but just under its key hourly moving averages.
Elsewhere, oil is still a little sluggish as it fell from $63.50 to $62.20 before holding around $62.70 currently. Over to cryptos, there is some relief as Bitcoin tries to hold above $40,000 in what will be a pivotal level to watch ahead of the daily close.
