The USD is stronger and on the heals of the CHF
As North American traders enter for the day, the CHF (and the USD) is the strongest of the major currencies, while the NZD and the AUD are the weakest.
In Australia the employment change beat expectations (+13.5 K vs 10K est), but the unemployment rate rose to 5.3% from 5.1%. The AUD and the NZD are also been influenced by the coronavirus fears.
The USD continues to move higher and trades at the highest level since May 2017. The CHF is attracting safe haven buying as well. In the UK better retail sales could not help the GBPUSD for long. The price moved higher briefly but then moved back to the downside.
The ranges and changes are showing pretty decent price activity. The GBPUSD, USDCAD, AUDUSD and NZDUSD are all trading close to the session extreme (with a higher dollar). The JPY pairs are mixed after the big runs higher in trading yesterday. The USDJPY is still up a healthy 57 pips after rising close to 150 pips in trading yesterday.
In other markets:
- Spot gold continues to move higher and further away from the $1600 level. The price is currently trading at $1616.86 which is up $5.16 or 0.31%
- WTI crude oil futures are also trading higher. It is up $0.56 or 1.05% at $53.85
In the premarket for US stocks, the futures are implying a lower opening:
- S&P index -4.55 points
- Dow industrial average -41 points
- NASDAQ index -14 points
In the European stock market:
- German DAX, -0.15%
- France's CAC, -0.19%
- UK's FTSE 100, unchanged
- Spain's Ibex, -0.84%
- Italy's FTSE MIB, -0.74%
In the US debt market, the yields are moving lower with the 2 year down -1.8 basis points and the 30 year down -2.9 basis points. The yield curve continues to flatten with the 2 – 10 year spread down to 13.72 basis points
In the European debt market, the benchmark 10 year yields are also moving to the downside. The UK yield is down 1.2 basis points the Italian yield is lower by -4.5 basis points:
