Forex news from the European trading session - 14 August 2020
Headlines:
- EU agrees deal with AstraZeneca for 300 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine
- OPEC+ JMMC meeting next week reportedly to take place on 19 August
- Austria reports 282 new coronavirus cases, highest daily count since April
- Eurozone Q2 GDP second reading -12.1% vs -12.1% q/q prelim
- Eurozone June trade balance €17.1 billion vs €14.5 billion expected
- China says that it has been fulfilling its commitments in Phase One trade deal
- NZ PM Ardern: To extend Auckland lockdown for an extra 12 days
- Germany reports 1,449 new coronavirus cases in latest update today
Markets:
- GBP leads, NZD lags on the day
- European equities lower; E-minis down 0.2%
- US 10-year yields down 1.8 bps to 0.703%
- Gold down 0.6% to $1,942.70
- WTI down 0.1% to $42.20
- Bitcoin up 1.2% to $11,755
There weren't much notable headlines on the session with the market sticking with a few key themes as we look towards US retail sales data later today before the weekend.
Equities kept softer, with European stocks retreating early on and maintained the losses for the most part. US futures also dipped early on before recovering some slight ground, but S&P 500 futures are still in the red though Nasdaq futures are more flat.
Treasury yields also nudged lower after a decent shove higher in trading yesterday, and that kept the yen slightly underpinned with USD/JPY easing from 106.80 to 106.65.
Elsewhere, gold and silver are trading lower as precious metals continue to consolidate a little after the sharp dip lower seen earlier in the week.
In the currencies space, the dollar is mixed as it trades lower against the pound with cable nudging a little higher to 1.3100 and testing near-term resistance again.
EUR/USD chopped around a little but is keeping more flat now as buyers and sellers do battle around the key hourly moving averages earlier in the session.
The kiwi is the laggard as NZD/USD kept lower around 0.6530 levels for the most part, with the currency dragged by a more dovish RBNZ from earlier in the week.
Looking ahead, there is US retail sales data to look forward to but otherwise, the market will continue to look for clues from the risk mood, Treasuries, and volatility in precious metals as we look to wrap up the trading week.
Oh, there is also the US-China meeting to look forward to on the weekend so be mindful in case we hear of any remarks from the Trump administration on that later.
