Forex news for North American trade on August 26, 2019:
- US July prelim durable goods orders +2.1% vs +1.2% expected
- PBOC says it will strengthen financial support for real economy
- ECB's Kazimir says that he's leaning towards policy action next month
- Tropical storm Dorian continues track to the northwest
- Russia cuts 2020 growth forecast
- Trump Macron press conference: G7 ends without communique
- Dallas Fed manufacturing index +2.7 vs -4.0 expected
- Australia PM Morrison says a trade deal with UK could be completed within a year
- Chicago Fed national activity index for July -0.36 versus -0.00 estimate
Markets:
- S&P 500 down 31 points to 2878
- Gold up $2 to $1529
- US 10-year yields flat at 1.53%
- WTI crude down 40-cents to $53.77
- AUD leads, JPY lags
The market-moving news all hit before New York trading got going. It started with a statement from Chinese trade negotiator Liu He calling for calm. That was followed by Trump saying China had made two calls to the US. A Chinese report tried to downplay the developments but risk trades held up after a few early gut checks.
At the end of the day, risk trades are close to their best levels with AUD/JPY pulling off an impressive rebound from a 10-year low. The Canadian dollar is also just shy of a one-week high, in part due to strong domestic data on Friday that was pushed aside at the time because of more pressing market concerns.
EUR/USD was on a slow bleed lower as it eats into the Friday move, giving back about half of it.
One interesting quirk came on a 30 pip spike in USD/JPY early in US trade. That looks like a fat finger spike and that might have partly been due to low liquidity with the UK on holiday.
