Forex news for North American trade on August 7, 2018:
- Tesla shares near all-time high after Musk hints at takeover
- US June JOLTS 6662K vs 6625K expected
- Canada July Ivey PMI 61.8 vs 63.1 prior
- US June consumer credit outstanding $10.211B vs +$15.0B expected
- US sells $34B of 3 year notes at 2.765%
- Wilbur Ross stole millions from business partners - report
- BOE's McCafferty: Not sure of QE withdrawal impact
Markets:
- Gold up $3 to $1210
- S&P 500 up 8 points to 2858
- WTI crude up 7 cents to $69.08
- US 10-year yields up 3 bps to 2.97%
- AUD leads, CAD lags
The US dollar was strong in Asia on yuan strength but that reversed in North American trade in part due to rising Treasury yields. USD/JPY rallied to 111.40 from 111.10 early in New York trade.
Cable was weak once again as it tracked lower but was able to hold Monday's low near 1.2925.
The real puzzle was the Canadian dollar. I spoke with Reuters about the move and it looks like flows. It was a steady bid right from the start of NA trading and was more lumpy after Europe went offline. The pair gained a full cent from the intraday lows and traced out a nice bullish outside day on the chart. The other risk is that something is happening on NAFTA or tariffs but you would expect that to leak. If that were the case some of the NAFTA-sensitive stocks would have also gotten hit.
AUD/USD, in contrast, was strong as it continued to 0.7440 after the RBA before fading back to 0.7420.
EUR/USD trading was uneventful in a chop around 1.1600.
