Forex news for North American trade on August 6, 2020:
- US weekly initial jobless claims 1186K vs 1400K expected
- Trump says he expects to sign executive orders delaying payroll tax collection
- Trump to announce 10% tariff on some Canadian aluminum
- CDC US deaths rise by 1320 on the day
- Florida death, hospitalizations and positivity all fall in latest data
- Kaplan: Still believes in healthy rate of Q3 and Q4 growth but 'won't be as pronounced'
- BOE's Bailey: There is an awful lot of risk to the downside in our forecasts
- US July Challenger layoffs 263k vs 170k prior
Markets:
- Gold up $25 to $2063 - hits record $2069
- WTI crude down 21 cents to $42.22
- S&P 500 up 21 points to 3349
- US 10-year yields down 1 bps to 0.54%
- AUD leads, CHF lags
The market is focused on non-farm payrolls and US virus stimulus but there was no real news to report. On the jobs front, weekly claims were better but the market reaction was minimal.
Coming into North American trade, the US dollar was stronger and that continued in early trade but Trump's talk about delaying payroll tax collection led to some USD weakness, or at least it coincided with it.
The dollar weakness accelerated around the European close and boosted EUR/USD to 1.1890 but it couldn't mount a serious challenge of the Asian high of 1.1916.
Cable touched a session low of 1.3112 after Bailey spoke but rebounded to 1.3160. Still it couldn't get above the earlier highs.
On currency that made a high in North American trade was the kiwi. It rode higher as risk trades improved and the dollar sagged. The pair finished at the best levels of the day at 0.6687.
USD/JPY ran into some trouble early on USD selling and hit 105.30 but managed to stead itself and rallied 30 pips before finishing roughly flat on the day at 105.50.
See you tomorrow for the jobs report, be sure to check out this important preview.
