Headlines:
- Dollar remains the laggard despite souring risk appetite
- ECB accounts: Some members viewed it as important to act on policy without undue delay
- ECB policymakers reportedly ready to back at least two 25 bps rate hikes this year
- BOJ buys ¥70.1 billion in ETFs today
- China reportedly in talks with Russia to purchase oil for strategic reserves
- Eurozone March current account balance -€1.57 billion vs €20.8 billion prior
- UK May CBI trends total orders 26 vs 14 prior
Markets:
- CHF leads, USD lags on the day
- European equities lower; S&P 500 futures down 0.9%
- US 10-year yields down 4.2 bps to 2.842%
- Gold up 0.8% to $1,830.82
- WTI crude down 1.1% to $108.35
- Bitcoin up 0.6% to $29,371
The session kicked off with a more cautious tone but that quickly turned into souring risk appetite as stocks retreated once again, with safety flows going into bonds and gold. The franc was also a notable beneficiary as European indices slid in playing catch up to Wall Street losses overnight.
USD/CHF fell to 0.9800 initially, before extending losses to 0.9750 where it is down by over 1% on the day. The franc's strength is also helped by a subtle push by SNB chief, Thomas Jordan, yesterday as he said that the central bank was ready to act on inflation if needed. I shared some thoughts on that here.
It's pretty much shaping up to be a risk-off kind of day but the dollar isn't finding that to be much help. The greenback is lower across the board with EUR/USD up 0.5% to above 1.0500 and GBP/USD pulling back by 0.7% to above 1.2400.
AUD/USD was initially higher around 0.7020, helped by a strong jobs report, before being dragged down to 0.6970 and then pushing back up now to near 0.7000 as the battle around the figure level continues.
But just be wary though that if risk tones continue to sour, then the dollar's lack of draw may not last for too long.
