Forex news for North American trading on November 19, 2018:
- US November NAHB housing market index 60 vs 67 expected
- Trump asks Wilbur Ross to stay on as Commerce Secretary
- Fed governor Quarles set to become chair of FSB - report
- Saudi crown prince to attend G20 summit in Buenos Aires
- Two more letters calling for no-confidence vote in Theresa May are in - report
- Fed's Williams: The US economy is doing very well
- Italy's Tria points to large French deficit
Markets:
- Gold up $2 to $1223
- WTI crude up 30-cents to $56.76 after fall to $55.08
- US 10-year yields down 1 bps to 3.05%
- S&P 500 down 45 points to 2690
- Nasdaq down 3.0%
- CHF leads, NZD lags
I didn't expect the NAHB housing market index to have much of an effect but it a big surprise miss added to bubbling concern in tech stocks and sent USD/JPY down to 112.42 from 112.85 in a fairly quick move around the time of the data.
With that, there was a theme of broader US dollar weakness. That boosted EUR/USD to another day of gains in a rise to 1.1464 at the highs before a 10 pip dip late.
Cable ran into worries early in European trading but May managed to stop the bleeding for a time and GBP/USD made some modest headway on the day. Tomorrow is a big day for the pound with votes coming up and talk of a leadership review.
USD/CAD was pulled higher by an early fall in oil on talk of Russia not wanting to rush into cuts. That later reversed and crude was higher. The Canadian oil discount also narrowed and USD?CAD fell back to 1.3170, still up 20 pips on the day but away from the 1.3203 high.
Risk aversion was the story in the later part of the day as US stocks started to take a beating. That and US-China tensions especially weighed on AUD and NZD as they both fell around 0.5% on the day.
