Forex news for New York trade on January 19, 2021:
- Yellen: We're prepared to use our full array of tools to address China
- More Yellen: There is an advantage to funding debt with long-term debt issuance
- Yellen: Any tax increase should be focused on high-income earnings and corporations
- Merkel extends lockdown to Feb 14, as rumored
- US Covid deaths top 400,000 according to Johns Hopkins
- BOE's Haldane: Bounceback from covid may be sharper than financial crisis
- Senate majority leader McConnell: January 6 riot was provoked by Pres. Trump
- New Zealand GDT price index +4.8%
- Canada November wholesale trade sales +0.7% vs +1.0% expected
Markets:
- S&P 500 up 30 points to 3799
- Gold down $2.50 to $1836
- US 10-year yields flat at 1.087%
- WTI crude up 66-cents to $53.02
- EUR leads, JPY lags
There was a struggle to sustain any consistent direction in the FX market on a day that was light on economic news. Yellen's speech had been leaked before and her comments on other issues didn't reveal anything particularly noteworthy about how Biden will tackle the more-difficult challenges.
The equity market was upbeat and that was the general tone in FX too but aside from the euro and sterling bids, the price action was moderate. Those currencies are benefiting from better covid numbers, despite harsh lockdowns.
The euro rose as high as 1.2145 late in European trade before giving back a bit late. Sterling though, is rounding out the day at the highs.
