Forex news from the European trading session - 29 April 2020
Headlines:
- UK's Raab: No intention to delay end of Brexit transition period
- German foreign minister confirms to extend global travel warning to 14 June
- Dollar holds weaker as focus stays on the Fed
- Eurozone April final consumer confidence -22.7 vs -22.7 prelim
- Gold focus: When the going gets tough, the tough buy gold
- Saxony April CPI +1.1% vs +1.6% y/y prior
- Russia's Novak: We will fully comply with OPEC+ deal in May
- Boeing working on major bond issue to raise funds, and other funding options
Markets:
- NZD leads, GBP lags on the day
- European equities mixed; E-minis up 0.6%
- US 10-year yields down 3 bps to 0.58%
- Gold flat at $1,708.00
- WTI up 16.6% to $14.40
- Bitcoin up 5.4% to $8,153
It was yet another session bereft of key headlines as the market stuck with dollar weakness as the main theme with US futures keeping higher since Asia Pacific trading.
The greenback was softer across the board but it did pick up gains against the pound during the session as we saw EUR/GBP rise on possibly month-end related flows.
That in turn saw cable fall off from a high of 1.2485 to test key near-term levels closer to the 1.2400 handle, as we are seeing now.
Other than that, equities kept more steady and that is pinning the dollar lower ahead of the US Q1 GDP report and the Fed policy meeting later today.
EUR/USD rose from 1.0850 to a high of 1.0874 before gains eased up. Meanwhile, USD/JPY pushed lower to 106.36 before fading back a little to around 106.50 currently.
Elsewhere, Treasuries continue to give very little clear indication of how which direction the market is leaning towards as 10-year yields are sitting lower, around 0.58%.
That has been the case for the bond market i.e. pivoting around 0.60%, for the most part this week so let's see how the Fed and Powell can influence things later.
In the commodities space, gold is still caught in a bind near flat levels while oil is finding some reprieve after a brutal start to the week with WTI June futures up to $14.40.
