Forex news from the European morning session - 16 June 2020
Headlines:
- Germany June ZEW survey current situation -83.1 vs -82.0 expected
- Australian foreign minister claims strong mandate for probe into origins of the coronavirus
- India-China tensions ramp up as three Indian soldiers were killed in face-off at China border
- IEA says oil demand won't fully recover until at least 2022
- BOJ's Kuroda: If government issues more super-long bonds, we may buy more
- North Korea appears to have blown up inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong
- BOJ's Kuroda: Ready to take further steps if needed
- China state researcher sees Chinese economy growing by above 4% this year
- UK May jobless claims change 528.9k vs 856.5k prior
- Coronavirus - Shanghai to quarantine some arrivals for 14 days
- Apple is facing another antitrust complaint in Europe
Markets:
- GBP leads, EUR lags on the day
- European equities higher; E-minis up 1.2%
- US 10-year yields up 2.1 bps to 0.743%
- Gold up 0.4% to $1,731.55
- WTI up 1.8% to $37.80
- Bitcoin up 0.2% to $9,504
All eyes remain on equities and the mood was largely still more upbeat as investors keep the focus on the Fed stepping into the market once more yesterday, with some Fed chair Powell also set to testify in Congress as well later in the day.
There was a bit of a hiccup with North Korea escalating tensions with South Korea by demolishing the inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong.
But equities largely brushed that aside after a slight nudge lower initially.
Major currencies are staying more indecisive though, with the dollar and yen sitting lower initially before paring some of those losses in some back and forth action.
AUD/USD fell from 0.6977 to 0.6896, testing key near-term levels before bouncing back to 0.6930 and then back down now to 0.6900-10 levels.
GBP/USD saw a similar move from 1.2650 to 1.2594 before coming back up to 1.2640-50 levels after finding support from its 100-hour moving average.
EUR/USD is keeping slightly weaker under 1.1300, testing levels under its key hourly moving averages at 1.1311-15 after having held above it for majority of the session.
The dollar is now seen a bit more mixed across the board but equities are still holding on to solid gains with the DAX up by over 3% and S&P 500 futures up by 1.2%.
Looking ahead, US retail sales will also be one to watch as we will have to see if the Powell put will stay firmly in play later in the North American trading.
