Forex news for North American trade on September 23, 2020:
- Fed's Clarida: Not even going to think about raising rates until actual inflation is at 2%
- Trump says he thinks 2020 election will end up in Supreme Court
- Markit Sept prelim services PMI 54.6 vs 54.5 expected
- FHFA July house price index +1.0% vs +0.5% expected
- Canada throne speech: "This is not the time for austerity"
- Fed's Quarles: Recovery is underway but risks remain to the downside
- Fed's Evans says he's in a 'distinct minority' in wanting 2.5% inflation
- Fed's Rosengren: We'd be lucky to get to 2% inflation in four years
- Fed's Evans: Should be clear that 2.5% inflation for some time is likely in the cards
- Sunak: There will be an update on protecting jobs through the winter
- Powell: We've done basically all the things we can think of
- EIA weekly US crude oil inventories -1639K vs -3270K exp
- Mester: We may need payment-system rethink after the virus
Markets:
- Gold down $40 to $1859
- WTI crude down 29-cents to $39.52
- US 10-year yields flat at 0.67%
- S&P 500 down 80 points to 3234
- USD leads, AUD lags
The FX market was on the leading edge of a move in risk assets once again. AUD and NZD were particularly weak before New York arrived but there was a broad bid in the US dollar underpinning everything.
The equity market was sanguine to start and the S&P 500 opened higher but it all steadily fell apart and turned into a nasty rout. Emerging market FX was battered including another record low in Turkish lira.
The dollar finished at the best levels of the day, almost right across the board. Once again, there was no clear trigger for the moves but Powell highlighted that the Fed has done all it can do and the market isn't liking that state of affairs combined with the pandemic and election uncertainty.
Technically, there was some serious damage done today and throughout the day me and Greg highlighted a number of moves that took out important levels. See them here.
