Forex news from the European trading session - 28 April 2021
Headlines:
- Japan plans vaccine passports to restart international travel - report
- US MBA mortgage applications w.e. 23 April -2.5% vs +8.6% prior
- Biden unveils $1.8 trillion proposal that covers education and aid to families, funded by tax hikes on the wealthy
- European Parliament votes in favour of Brexit trade agreement
- Germany May GfK consumer confidence -8.8 vs -4.2 expected
- RBNZ's Harris: Central bank still not meeting its employment objective
- Germany reports 22,231 new coronavirus cases, 312 deaths in latest update today
Markets:
- NZD leads, GBP lags on the day
- European equities higher; S&P 500 futures flat
- US 10-year yields up 1.1 bps to 1.632%
- Gold down 0.5% to $1,767.50
- WTI up 1.0% to $63.57
- Bitcoin down 0.2% to $55,090
US president Biden unveiled his $1.8 trillion proposal to expand social security in the US, set to be funded by the wealthy - with Biden himself set to speak in Congress later.
The White House statement confirms what we hear from last week with regards to capital gains tax but the market is less perturbed this time around.
European indices kept a slight advance while US futures are more tepid and cautious as Treasury yields climb higher again. 10-year yields moved up to 1.648% at the highs while 10-year breakevens also jumped to its highest since 2013.
The dollar kept a slight advance throughout the session with USD/JPY testing a high of 109.08 before retreating back to 108.80-90 levels at the moment.
EUR/USD remains caught in between key technical levels, sitting around 1.2060-80.
Elsewhere, USD/CAD inched lower from 1.2400-10 to 1.2390 while AUD/USD held lower at around 0.7730-50 for the most part after softer Australian CPI data.
There is much still to come in the day with the FOMC meeting being the key focus alongside big tech earnings and Biden's speech as well. With bond sellers starting to come back into the picture again, let's see how Treasuries hold up and if there is anything for risk trades to work with by the end of it all.
