Forex news for North American trading on February 2, 2021
- US Senate has voted in favour of moving Biden's $1.9 tln COVID relief package forward
- Major indices post 2 day winning streak. Amazon and Google beat on earnings. Bezos to step down from CEO role
- Former ECB chief Draghi front runner to be next Italy Premier
- The bitcoin up over $2200 now . Trades to a new session high
- WTI crude oil futures settle at $54.76
- Biden continues to urge Democrats to go big on stimulus
- SNB's Maechler: Benefits of negative rates outweigh disadvantages
- Sen Manchin says he will vote in favor of Democrats' budget plan
- AstraZeneca vaccine shows 82.4% efficacy after 3-month gap between shots
- European shares have back-to-back gains to start the week
- UK covid cases continue downturn as pandemic ebbs in much of the world
- The tears are flowing as GME crumbles below $100 in a 60% decline
- The US dollar bid is relentless. Here's why
- New Zealand GDT price index +1.8%
- Jan ISM New York business conditions 51.2 vs 61.3 prior
- Fed's Kaplan: We're not out of the woods by a longshot
- The CAD is the strongest and the AUD is the weakest as NA traders enter for the day
The USD moved higher in the North American session with the EURUSD falling to the lowest level since December 1, the USDJPY moving to the highest level since November 12. The AUDUSD fell to a new low going back to the end of December. The greenback was the strongest of the major currencies at one point during the day, but late day selling helped to push the currency back toward a mixed result for the currency (with a small positive bias). The dollar ending higher vs the AUD, EUR, near unchanged vs the NZD, JPY and CHF and down vs the CAD.
The strongest currency of the day was the CAD. The weakest was the AUD (although the declines in the AUD have seen some dip buying into the close).
The data today was light with NY ISM (weaker than expected) the only economic report today. The index fell sharply to 51.2 from 61.3, but the shut downs in the face of increased Covid cases likely contributed to the declines. Nevertheless, the economy in the US seems to be doing ok (stocks were up strongly again today), but Fed officials like Kaplan warned again today, that the economy is not out of the woods by a longshot. Political wrangling is also back in full on mode with GOP looking for a $600B package while Dems are at $1.9T. That is a pretty wide spread. However, relatively, the US seems to be on better footing globally, which could/should keep the USD supported off the recent low levels.
In other markets today:
- spot gold fell $22 to -$1838.
- Spot silver which traders highs at $30.10 yesterday close at $26.18 today. That is down from $29.05 yesterday.
- WTI crude oil futures rose $1.21 or 2.26% to $54.76. The price broke out of range that has kept the price between $51.41 and $53.94 since January 8. Stay above the $53.94 keeps the buyers in firm control.
- Bitcoin closed at $35,680 that was up from the closing level from yesterday at $33,663.
US stocks rally for the 2nd consecutive day with the Dow industrial average just peeking out the NASDAQ index as the biggest gainer for the day:
- S&P index increase 52.45 points or 1.39% to 3826.31
- NASDAQ index rose 209.38 points or 1.56% to 13612.77
- Dow industrial average rose 475.57 points or 1.57% to 30687.48.
European shares also advance today the 2nd consecutive. Below are the percentage changes for the major indices today all our above the 0.0%
In the US debt market, helping the dollar has been higher interest rates. The 10 year yield rose by 1.5 basis points to 1.095%. Although higher that is still off the highest yield of 1.117% reached earlier in the day. The 30 year bond is also higher by about 1.4 basis points to 1.867%.
