Forex news from the European trading session - 30 March 2021
Headlines:
- PayPal to announce crypto checkout service
- Eurozone March final consumer confidence -10.8 vs -10.8 prelim
- Saxony March CPI +1.7% vs +1.3% y/y prior
- BOJ purchases ¥50.1 billion worth of ETFs today
- Spain March preliminary CPI +1.3% vs +0.9% y/y expected
- Treasuries selloff looks poised to extend further
- ECB's Vasiliauskas: QE likely to stay for quite a while even after the virus crisis
- Germany reports 9,549 new coronavirus cases, 180 deaths in latest update today
Markets:
- USD leads, JPY lags on the day
- European equities higher; S&P 500 futures down 0.2%
- US 10-year yields up 5.4 bps to 1.762%
- Gold down 1.3% to $1,690.10
- WTI down 1.7% to $60.52
- Bitcoin up 3.0% to $58,956
As the Archegos Capital fallout looks rather contained, the market reverted back to "old habits" as Treasury yields surged higher and stole the focus today.
10-year yields climbed to their highest since January last year, looking to breach 1.75% and that underpinned the dollar and kept the yen pressured across the board.
European equities took things in stride, holding on to slight gains while US futures pointed lower with Dow futures also erasing earlier gains to flat levels now. Nasdaq futures are bearing the brunt of higher yields, as it falls 0.6% on the session.
EUR/USD eased from 1.1760 to 1.1730 while USD/JPY broke above the 110.00 level for the first time in a little over a year, climbing form 109.95 to 110.35.
AUD/USD and NZD/USD both also reversed earlier gains against the dollar with the former falling from 0.7650 to 0.7610 while the latter dropped from 0.7010 to 0.6980.
Elsewhere, precious metals also came under more pressure with gold falling from $1,705 to $1,688 and silver breaking further below its 200-day moving average in a drop from $24.55 to $24.27 and inching closer towards its January lows near $24.
Oil also suffered with a near 2% drop to $60.50 levels amid a stronger dollar with the OPEC+ meeting tomorrow in focus as well.
As much as there are plenty of other distractions in the market to end Q1 trading, the message in the bigger picture continues to be rather coherent. Keep calm and steepen on.
