Forex news for North American trading on May 19, 2020:
- There are some doubts about Moderna's vaccine and it's weighing on the broader market
- Powell: Question of whether government response is enough 'looms'
- Expect Fed's Main Street lending and other programs to be running by month-end, Powell says
- Fed's Rosengren: People need to be comfortable before there's a recovery
- Fed's Rosengren says policymakers will do what they can
- Euro stalls but Fraco-German proposal gets positive reviews
- Trump: US should consider terminating trade deals under which it imports cattle
- ECB's Lane: In a severe scenario, GDP would fall by 12% in 2020
- US April housing starts 891K vs +900K expected
Markets:
- S&P 500 down 31 points to 2922
- WTI crude up 3 cents to $31.69
- Gold up $14 to $1746
- US 10-year yields down 3 bps to 0.6948%
- NZD leads, JPY lags
The early theme was Japanese yen weakness after it was revealed that the BOJ will hold a special meeting on Friday with a new lending program ready to be rolled out. USD/JPY accelerated to the upside in a mini-parabolic move starting at 107.25 and hitting 108.09, which was a one-month high. That high was just above the late-April highs but there was no follow-through. Instead the pair promptly topped out and slowly sagged back to 107.70.
The move in EUR/JPY was larger as the pair hit 118.20 as the euro climbed on the French-German plan to boost spending in the eurozone. EUR/USD rose to 1.0976 in European trading but never got back there in US trade and finished near the New York low of 1.0925.
Cable did get a second-wind late in the day at rose to 1.2296 but offers at the figure capped the move and it sagged back to 1.2240.
The commodity currencies are the charts to watch right now as both AUD and CAD look to break out against the US dollar. Both got near the limits today but didn't push through and then retraced late on the Moderna skepticism and reversal in stock markets.
