Forex news for North American trading on April 6, 2020:
- Boris Johnson has been taken to intensive care
- Congressional leaders tell Wall Street execs that another $1.5T stimulus is coming before month-end
- OPEC+ likely to agree to cuts on condition that US joins - report
- Fed establishes term funding facility for small-business lending program
- France coronavirus deaths rise to 8911 from 8078 yesterday
- Italy reports 636 new deaths from virus vs 525 Sunday
- New York state coronavirus deaths 4758 vs 4149 yesterday
- UK coronavirus death toll hits 5373 vs 4932 yesterday
- Bank of Canada business outlook survey: Sentiment softened in most regions even before coronavirus
- Bank of Israel cuts rates to 0.10% from 0.25%
- Germany plans limitless credit program for small businesses
Markets:
- US 10-year yields up 7.3 bps to 0.67%
- Gold up $45 to $1665
- WTI crude down $2.10 to $26.25
- S&P 500 up 175 points to 2663
- AUD leads, JPY lags
Late in the day we got a report from Fox Business about a $1.5 trillion stimulus package that was leaked to Wall Street executives by Congressional leaders. That helps to answer the question about who was buying risk assets all day.
Despite the steady rally in stocks, the commodity currencies only got a modest boost. For CAD, that was all about the decline in oil and the game of chicken ahead of Thursday's OPEC meeting continues. USD/CAD climbed above 1.4150 briefly but fell back to 1.4100 at the close.
The main market-moving headline came from the UK where Boris Johnson was moved to the ICU and that sent cable quickly 80 pips lower before a small recovery.
USD/JPY also refused to fully embrace the risk trade as it climbed to 109.15 from 109.00 in North American trade. The range was narrow.
A bigger directional move came in gold as a steady bid boosted it to $1664 in a $40, one-way move.
