The USD is stronger
The CHF and the JPY are the strongest of the major currencies as investors rush into the "relative safety" of those currencies after the more sobering accessment from the Fed yesterday. The AUD and NZD are the weakest as risk off flows send those currencies lower. The USD was the weakest of the majors yesterday, but is giving up on that idea today. It is higher vs all the currencies with the exception of modest declines vs the CHF and JPY.
The ranges and changes are pretty healthy. The USDJPY and USDCHF are more modest with 43 and 59 pips, but others are near/approaching the 22 day average ranges (red line in the lower chart below). The GBPUSD, USDCAD, AUDUSD and NZDUSD pairs are near high USD levels in the morning snapshot. The JPY crosses are all trading in the red (and have been for most of the day).
In other markets:
- Spot gold is trading down $11 or -0.63% $1727.73. Yesterday gold fell around $20 in response to the lower rates. So far we are not seeing a flight into safety flow today into gold.
- WTI crude oil futures are trading down $2.01 or -5.08% at $37.59
In the premarket for the US stocks, the futures are implying sharply lower levels with the Dow industrial average leading the way to the downside
- Dow is down -735 points
- S&P is down -69.6 points
- Nasdaq is down -155.46 points
In the European equity markets the major indices are also trading lower for the 4th consecutive day
- German DAX, -2.72%
- France's CAC, -3.02%
- UK FTSE, -2.7%
- Spain's Ibex, -3.5%
- Italy's FTSE MIB, -3.5%
In the US debt market the yields are mostly lower with the yield curve flattening once again. The 2 – 10 year spread has narrowed once again to 52.24 basis points from 55.96 basis points at the close yesterday
In the European debt market, the benchmark 10 year yields are all trending to the downside. The France's CAC which moved up toward 0.08% yesterday is down -6.2 basis points and just above the 0.0% level at 0.016%.
