Forex news for NY trading on August 20, 2018.
- US stocks end the session with gains in a lackluster session
- Australia Monetary Policy meeting minutes to be released in the new day
- Trump reiterates that he disagrees with Powell for raising rates
- Crude oil futures settle at $66.43
- ECB Weidmans speech does not have any monetary policy comments
- USDTRY settles around MAs/between trend lines
- DOE has offered 11M barrels sour crude for sale from US reserves
- Bostic speaks to reporters: Still at 3 hikes in 2018 (one more)
- ECB Weidman: Central banks may need to tackle imbalances
- More from Fed's Bostic: We worry about the flatness of the yield curve
- Trump: Powell hasn't been a cheap money Fed chair
- Fed's Bostic: US economy doing well. GDP strong.
- European ends session with gains
- Bank of Canada's Wilkins avoids any strong signals on rates
- China's Vice Premier Liu: Paying close attention to small/medium enterprises
- The GBP is the strongest, while the NZD is the weakest at the start of NA day
- ForexLive European FX news wrap: Dollar holds steady in calm start to the new week
Today, had no economic releases. Fed's Bostic did speak and was a little more hawkish (for him) at first, saying that the Fed was working to get policy back to neutra,l and the economy did not need stimulus anymore. Later he started to fall back in line saying that he only saw one more hike in the year (the market is expecting two more), and that the yield curve was a concern. Those dovish comments helped to keep the dollar pointing more to the downside.
The bigger fundamental news came after comments from President Trump hit the newswires saying he was once again critical of the Fed tightening policy. He made those comments at a Hampton's fundraiser on Friday.
Then closer to the close, an exclusive interview with Reuters had Trump reiterated those comments straight from the "horses mouth" himself (which gave it a little more credibility vs some people at the event). He also said China and Europe manipulated their currencies which was dollar bearish.
The comments are sending the dollar to new session lows at the close and is making the USD, the weakest currency of the day for the major currency pairs (see chart below).
Also helping to hurt the dollar today was lower yields. Yields were already down on the day but after the comments moved to new session lows. The US 10 year fell -4.3 bps. The year was down -2.1 bps while the 30 year fell -3.8 bps.
In other markets today:
- Spot gold is trading up $5.50 at $1190.55 on the weaker dollar
- WTI crude oil is up $0.71 or +1.08% at $66.62
- Bitcoin on Coinbase fell -$85.42 to $6448. The high reached $6547. The low extended to $6389 but stayed above the 200 hour MA (see post here).
In the US stock market, the major indices are ending the session higher. The Dow 30 stocks led the way higher. The Nasdaq lagged and closed near unchanged. European stocks closed higher and were paced by the German Dax (up 0.99%).
