Forex news from the European trading session - 4 May 2020
Headlines:
- What's driving the softer risk mood today?
- Eurozone May Sentix investor confidence -41.8 vs -28.0 expected
- Japan PM Abe: Will extend state of emergency to 31 May
- SNB total sight deposits w.e. 1 May CHF 663.8 bn vs CHF 650.7 bn prior
- Eurozone April final manufacturing PMI 33.4 vs 33.6 prelim
- Germany April final manufacturing PMI 34.5 vs 34.4 prelim
- France April final manufacturing PMI 31.5 vs 31.5 prelim
- Italy April manufacturing PMI 31.1 vs 30.0 expected
- Switzerland April manufacturing PMI 40.7 vs 35.0 expected
- Spain April manufacturing PMI 30.8 vs 34.0 expected
- UK defence minister: China has questions to answer on the coronavirus
- ECB's de Guindos: ECB is playing its part, others must too
- NZ PM Ardern: Don't see 'travel bubble' with Australia in the short-term
- RBNZ to make further funds available to banks this month
Markets:
- JPY leads, GBP lags on the day
- European equities lower; E-minis down 0.9%
- US 10-year yields down 1.3 bps to 0.599%
- Gold up 0.3% to $1,705.69
- WTI down 5.1% to $18.77
- Bitcoin down 0.5% to $8,689
The market is continuing with a softer risk approach to start the new week, as we see US-China tensions heighten further amid the coronavirus blame game.
European stocks return from the long weekend with most major indices posting losses of over 3%. Meanwhile, US futures are also keeping lower by around 1%.
The dollar and yen are the two lead gainers in the currencies space, with the euro and pound notably coming under pressure during the session.
EUR/USD eased from 1.0950 to 1.0924 while cable fell from 1.2450 levels to a low of 1.2406.
The former is seeing a fall after failing to crack its 100-day moving average while cable is testing waters under its key hourly moving averages.
Commodity currencies are also keeping lower, though losses are rather modest for now.
AUD/USD actually climbed during the session from 0.6385 to 0.6410 but is still lower on the day. NZD/USD is also consolidating losses around 0.6030-40 levels.
It is all about the risk mood as we get the week started and the key question now is whether or not this supposed "bear market rally" has run its course.
That will be a question for investors over the next few days, so watch equity indices closely as we are already seeing European stocks erase a chunk of their April gains today.
