Forex news from the European trading session - 29 September 2020
Headlines:
- Funding pressures acting up ahead of month-end, quarter-end
- Germany's Roth in letter to UK government: A fair Brexit deal is still possible
- Eurozone September final consumer confidence -13.9 vs -13.9 prelim
- UK August mortgage approvals 84.7k vs 71.3k expected
- Bavaria September CPI -0.2% vs -0.1% y/y prior
- Germany reportedly may limit gatherings to curb virus spread
- Saxony September CPI +0.1% vs +0.1% y/y prior
- Spain September preliminary CPI -0.4% vs -0.5% y/y expected
- China says yuan strength could hurt export competitiveness
Markets:
- AUD leads, JPY lags on the day
- European equities lower; E-minis down 0.2%
- US 10-year yields flat at 0.653%
- Gold up 0.3% to $1,887.30
- WTI down 0.8% to $40.30
- Bitcoin down 1.0% to $10,764
There weren't much notable headlines on the session but market movement was relatively modest with the dollar losing further ground to start the week while equities struggled with attention turning towards the first US presidential debate later today.
European stocks struggled for momentum alongside US futures, turning lower early on and stayed more sluggish throughout the session.
But the dollar and yen were still the weakest performers in the major currencies space, with EUR/USD rising from 1.1670 to move back above the 1.1700 level.
AUD/USD gained in a push from 0.7100 to 0.7128 while NZD/USD inched higher from 0.6560 to 0.6595. Elsewhere, GBP/USD maintained gains around 1.2860-80 levels throughout the session with Brexit negotiations still ongoing in Brussels.
The yen trailed behind the dollar with USD/JPY rising from 105.45 to 105.60 levels early on in the day and never really broke stride during the session.
Looking ahead, the anticipation ahead of the US presidential debate will be the hot topic in North America but just be mindful of month-end and quarter-end flows, especially with dollar funding pressures starting to act up in the past hour.
