Forex news from the European trading session - 20 April 2021
Headlines:
- Tokyo reportedly decided to seek state of emergency to curb virus spread
- US futures creeping lower ahead of North American trading
- Dollar declines trimmed even as Treasury yields pare earlier advance
- UK March jobless claims change 10.1k vs 86.6k prior
- Germany March PPI +0.9% vs +0.6% m/m expected
- Hong Kong-Singapore travel bubble reportedly set to be unveiled later this week
- Germany reports 9,609 new coronavirus cases, 297 deaths in latest update today
Markets:
- AUD leads, JPY lags on the day
- European equities lower; E-minis down 0.4%
- US 10-year yields down 1 bps to 1.594%
- Gold up 0.2% to $1,774.77
- WTI up 0.3% to $63.55
- Bitcoin down 0.6% to $55,844
The session started off with the dollar under pressure as the technical breakout looked set to extend but amid some risk-off tones, the greenback managed to steady itself but there was little reprieve for the yen as it failed to recover after stumbling earlier.
Risk was steadier to begin with but fumbled thereafter with European indices now sustaining losses a little over 1% while US futures switched from being higher to down 0.4%.
That helped to offset some pressure on the dollar with EUR/USD falling from 1.2080 to 1.2050 levels while GBP/USD erased its advance from 1.4000 to 1.3970.
AUD/USD also backed away from a high of 0.7816 to 0.7770-80 levels as the dollar trimmed declines from earlier in the session.
USD/JPY had other ideas with the pair moving up from 108.20 to 108.55 as Treasury yields crept higher initially. 10-year yields moved up from 1.60% to 1.63% but have now fallen back down to 1.59% - seeing USD/JPY ease a little to 108.40.
It's mostly a bit of a mixed session with some hints of a risk-off tone seeping in as equities struggle to extend the momentum from last week and pulling back.
Let's see if there is the appetite for a stronger correction in US trading later.