Forex news from the European session - 30 March 2020
Headlines:
- Tokyo governor confirms 13 new coronavirus cases today
- Germany says that speed of virus spread is too fast to loosen restrictions
- Saudi Arabia plans to increase oil exports by another 600k bpd starting from May
- Spain confirms another 812 coronavirus deaths, slightly fewer than yesterday's record
- BOJ continues with record ETF purchases today
- SNB total sight deposits w.e. 27 March CHF 620.5 bn vs CHF 608.8 bn prior
- Japan's Suga: Not true that government will declare state of emergency on 1 April
- Japan to issue ¥16 trillion in additional govt bonds to fund stimulus package - sources
- Saxony March CPI +1.6% vs +2.0% y/y prior
- Australia to commit A$130 billion to support jobs
- RKI reports 57,298 coronavirus cases in Germany, up by 4,751 cases from yesterday
- Thailand reports 136 new coronavirus cases, total tally at 1,524 cases
Markets:
- USD leads, CAD lags on the day
- European equities lower; E-minis up 0.3%
- US 10-year yields down 2 bps to 0.65%
- Gold down 0.3% to $1,623
- WTI down 5.2% to $20.40
- Bitcoin down 4.5% to $6,380
The market is in a state of flux to start the week, as equities found it tough to keep early gains amid choppy trading. But in the currencies space, the dollar kept firmer across the board.
European equities opened with slight gains as US futures clawed back losses from Asia Pacific trading but that all turned sour within the first 20 minutes of the open.
Stocks turned red before climbing back up to near flat levels in a choppy session before settling just a little lower currently. Most major indices are keeping around 1% losses while US futures bounced back and forth and is little changed on the day.
As for the major currencies bloc, USD/JPY bounced back from 107.40 to 108.00 early in the day as the dollar kept firmer and maintained gains across the board.
EUR/USD eased from 1.1090 to 1.1046 to test its key daily moving averages as we look towards North American trading. Meanwhile, cable also fell from 1.2400 to 1.2318 before seeing a bounce back towards 1.2430 levels currently.
Meanwhile, the loonie kept weaker amid softer oil prices as USD/CAD worked its way from near 1.4100 to 1.4150 during the session.
All of this points towards investors feeling out the market to start the week as coronavirus headlines continue to pour in. The situation in some countries are starting to see the curve flatten i.e. Italy, Germany, Spain but the relative figures are still large.
The market is going to have to figure out how to balance the developments moving forward and the continued hit towards the global economy, with expectations of more central bank and government action to make things better during the period.
