US lawmakers reach an agreement
Overnight, US lawmakers were able to reach a historic stimulus deal of $2T to combat the implications of the coronavirus. Stocks moved higher, but have since given up the gains and trade in the red. In the forex, the winds of change is showing the GBP is the strongest along with the AUD, while the USD and JPY are the weakest.
Looking at the ranges and changes, some of the ranges look like the pre-virus variety. The EURUSD, USDJPY and USDCHF have low to high ranges well below the 22 day averages (although those averages are way higher than a month ago. The AUDUSD and NZDUSD also have ranges today that are below the 22 day average today). However, each of those pairs are off extreme levels. The GBPUSD is leading the way with a 238 pip range as investors continued the buying off the low levels, but that price is well off the high extreme. The price of the GBPUSD moved above its 200 hour MA at 1.18947 in the process, but is currently trading just below that level now (the high reached 1.1972).
In other markets:
- Spot gold is down $23 and -1.41% at $1609
- WTI crude oil futures are down $0.44 or -1.75% at $23.59
In the premarket for US stocks, the major indices have seen big up and down swings as the market digested the $2 trillion statements package:
- Dow, unchanged
- S&P, -21 points
- Nasdaq, -61 points
In the European equity markets, apart from the German Dax the major indices are higher:
- German DAX -1.1%
- France's CAC +1.8%
- UK FTSE 100 +1%
- Spain's Ibex, +1.6%
- Italy's FTSE MIB +0.7%
in the US debt market, yields are mixed with the 2 year and 10 year down marginally and the 5 year and 30 year up marginally:
In the European debt market yields are mostly lower with the German 10 year being the exception: