Forex news for New York trade on March 19, 2020:

Markets:

  • Gold down $14 to $1471
  • WTI crude up $4.86 to $25.23
  • US 10-year yields flat at 1.19%
  • S&P 500 up 11 points to 2409
  • CAD leads, JPY lags

The unstoppable US dollar bid didn't exactly relent on Thursday but the Fed opened swap lines to 9 more central banks and that relieved the pressure, at least for a time. There were some huge round trips in the antipodeans on the day -- down 5%, then up 2% only to finish down 0.4-0.9% after big rallies into the London fix.

The pound also jumped into the fix in a rip to 1.1794 but it's back down near the 35-year lows at 1.1523. Yesterday's low tick was 1.1452 and that's the spot to watch for another breakdown.

All the talk in the market is about how far everyone is willing to let the dollar run before we see some kind of coordinated intervention. I don't think we're at that point yet but some of the moves -- including the sharp drop in NOK today -- are disorderly so there's a case to move. The US probably isn't liking this move either.

Meanwhile the euro continues to sink lower and it fell 225 pips today to 1.0688, which is the lowest since 2017. The ECB fired another bazooka and it worked in the bond market with periphery yield falling dramatically. Still, the heart of the outbreak is Europe and it doesn't have the capacity to deal with debt like countries that issue their own currency.

The Canadian dollar managed to edge out he US dollar after erasing an early fall. All it took was the largest one-day rally in crude oil in history to do it -- 24%. Aside from that, the loonie has held up relatively well, suggesting that domestic funding pressures aren't as severe as elsewhere -- at least for now.

Forex news for New York trade on March 19, 2020: