Forex news for North American trading on March 31, 2020:
- Fed launches temporary repo facility with foreign central banks
- US March consumer confidence 120.0 vs 110.0 expected
- Goldman Sachs cuts Q2 GDP forecast to -34% as many firms forecast sharp drop
- US January Case-Shiller 20-city house price index +3.08% y/y vs +3.23% expected
- California sees 17% rise in coronavirus cases to 6,932
- Fed's Daly says she suspects the US is already in recession
- Italy coronavirus cases 4,053 vs 4,050 yesterday
- New York coronavirus cases 75,795 vs 66,497 prior
- US March consumer confidence 120.0 vs 110.0 expected
- Canada January GDP +0.1% m/m vs +0.2% expected
Markets:
- Gold down $45 to $1577
- WTI crude oil up 16-cents to $20.26
- US 10-year yields down 5 bps to 0.67%
- S&P 500 down 42 points to 2584
- Canadian dollar leads, NZD lags
Tuesday's trading was a lesson in quarter-end flows. It was a wild quarter and the final day matched the madness with many whippy moves, particularly in cable and the Canadian dollar.
Cable was slammed down into the fix, falling 100 pips in the minutes only to bounce to new session highs. However it then did another lap in the US afternoon in the 1.2350-1.2450 range.
USD/CAD shot to a high of 1.4349 early in North American trade but was later slammed 250 pips lower even with oil relatively calm. Domestic factors were part of the story but then there was another +100 pips rally back above 1.4200 followed by a fresh flush to 1.4050 to finish on the lows.
It wasn't much calmer elsewhere. The euro sank down to 1.0927 at the start of New York trade but battled to 1.1026 late in a choppy move to finish nearly unchanged.
USD/JPY rallied hard in Asia to 108.73 but made a double top there early in New York and faded along with risk trades to close on the lows at 107.57.
The kiwi dollar was also particularly hard hit late in the day in a drop to 0.5910 but bids were lurking there as that was also Friday's low. It then rebounded to 0.5960.
Gold crumbled late in a $45 fall to finish the month fractionally lower.
