Forex news from the European trading session - 30 July 2020
Headlines:
- China's Politburo says that monetary policy will be more targeted in 2H 2020
- Eurozone July final consumer confidence -15.0 vs -15.0 prelim
- Japan downgrades GDP forecasts, expects economy to shrink by 4.5% this fiscal year
- Germany Q2 preliminary GDP -10.1% vs -9.0% q/q expected
- Germany July unemployment change -18.0k vs 41.0k expected
- Tokyo governor confirms will ask bars, karaoke venues to limit opening hours
- Spain July preliminary CPI -0.6% vs -0.3% y/y expected
- Saxony July CPI +0.2% vs +1.0% y/y prior
- Tokyo confirms a daily record of 367 new coronavirus cases in latest update today
Markets:
- GBP leads, AUD lags on the day
- European equities lower; E-minis down 0.9%
- US 10-year yields down 2 bps to 0.554%
- Gold down 0.8% to $1,955.90
- WTI down 1.8% to $40.50
- Bitcoin down 2.5% to $10,945
It was a largely quiet session as the ebb and flow dominated proceedings, with the risk mood turning more defensive today with European stocks not helped by disappointing earnings results from Renault and Volkswagen earlier.
The US will also see some key releases, notably Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, and Facebook, after the close today and that will keep things spicy ahead of the weekend.
As for today, the more defensive risk tones helped to keep a bid in the dollar as we see EUR/USD slip from 1.1770 to 1.1731 before hovering around 1.1750 levels.
Commodity currencies are pegged lower with AUD/USD slipping from 0.7170 to 0.7130 while USD/CAD climbed from 1.3370 to 1.3425 during the session.
That said, the pound is the best performing major currency and that likely owes much to EUR/GBP flows at this point in time with cable looking to keep above 1.3000.
Elsewhere, gold and silver also had a jittery session as we see the latter fall back towards $23 and breaking below its 100-hour moving average.
It is all about the risk mood and flow-based momentum as we look towards the end of the week, with month-end flows and earnings set to be of key focus.
Later today, we'll also be getting US Q2 GDP data but that is likely to just reaffirm what we already know at this stage i.e. worst quarterly contraction on record.
