USD is modestly weaker as traders await Durable goods, claims, GDP
As North American traders enter for the day, the GBP is the strongest and the CHF is the weakest. The GBPUSD spiked higher recently after BOE's Vlieghe said an early rate hike is possible if there is smooth transition from furlough. All the GBP has moved higher on the headline news. The USD is tilting to the downside as traders await the US dump of economic data at the bottom of the hour that includes Durable goods for Ap the ril (P - est 0.8% vs 1.0% last month), GDP (2nd revisision) for the 1Q (6.5% vs 6.4% for the preliminary), and the weekly initial jobless claims (est 425K vs 444K. That would be the lowest since 258K back at the start of the pandemic). The month is coming to a close on Monday. Monday is also a bank holiday in the UK and US so traders need to be wary of holiday and month end flows potentially influencing the markets from time to time.
The ranges and changes are showing the movements in the GBP pairs. They are all trading near GBP highs.. For the USD, the EURUSD, USDJPY, USDCHF and AUDUSD all within 9 pips of unchanged. The USDCAD is trading near session lows to start the NA session and is testing the 100/200 hour MAs in the process near 1.2073.
In other markets:
- Spot gold is down $1.95 or -0.10% at $1894.75
- Spot silver is down three cents or -0.11% $27.65
- WTI crude oil futures are trading down $0.44 or -0.66% at $65.75
- The price of bitcoin moved back above toward 40,000. The high price has reached $39,999.00. The current price is just off that level at $39,945 up $1160 or 3.0%. The low price reached $37,191.99
In the premarket for US stocks, the futures are implying a mixed opening for the major indices after yesterday's moves higher
- Dow Jones, up 80 points. Yesterday the index rose 10.59 points or 0.03% at 34,323.05
- S&P index trading down -2 points. Yesterday the index rose 7.86 points or 0.19% at 4195.99
- NASDAQ index down -40 points. Yesterday the index rose 80.83 points or 0.59% at 13738.00
In the European equity markets, the major indices are trading mixed. Germany and UK lower lower. France, Italy, and Spain are higher:
- German DAX, -0.16%
- France's CAC, +0.67%
- UK's FTSE 100, -0.2%
- Italy's FTSE MIB +0.6%
- Spain's Ibex, +0.25%
In the US debt market, the yields are mostly higher. However, the two year yield is unchanged:
In the European debt market, the benchmark 10 year yields have reversed their declines from yesterday are trading higher. The UK 10 year yield is up the most at 4.6 basis points after more hawkish comments.
