The USD is tilting to the downside
The AUD is the strongest and the GBP is the weakest (a lot of uncertainty from Brexit and coronavirus ahead) as NA traders enter for the day. The USD is modestly lower with most of the decline vs the AUD and GBP. The EURUSD, USDJPY, USDCHF, USDCAD and NZDUSD are all within 0.18% of the close from yesterday. Today is quadruple witching in the stocks. That increases volume and could lead to more volatility as well.
Looking at the ranges and changes, the narrow trading ranges are evident. Versus the USD, with the exception of the GBPUSD the ranges are less than 45 pips. The EURUSD at 27 pips, the USDJPY at 27 pips, the USDCHF at 22 pips are particularly inactive. The GBPUSD is trading at near the session lows as is the GBPJPY continues its run to the downside today (-78 pips) and is trading at the lows after a move lower by about 150 pips yesterday. The other JPY crosses are mixed and more contained.
In other markets:
- Spot gold is trading up $10.95 or 0.63% $1733.88
- WTI crude oil futures are trading higher by $1.20 or 3.09% of $40.04
In the premarket for the US stocks, the futures are implying a higher opening in trading near the premarket highs for the day:
- Dow is up +300 points
- S&P is up 36 points
- Nasdaq is up 86 points
In the European equity markets the major indices are also trading to the upside
- German DAX, +1.24%
- France's CAC, +1.4%
- UK FTSE, +1.4%
- Spain's Ibex, +0.1%
- Italy's FTSE MIB, +1.1%
In the US debt market the yields are trading higher with the yield curve steepening by about 2 basis points.
In the European debt market, the benchmark 10 year yields are trading mixed with the German, UK, Italy yields are marginally higher and France, Spain, Portugal yields marginally lower
