Forex news from the European trading session - 31 March 2021
Headlines:
- France said to be mulling a national lockdown to deal with rise in virus infections
- Tax increases to be paying for Biden's $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan - White House
- Eurozone March preliminary CPI +1.3% vs +1.4% y/y expected
- ECB's Lagarde: We will give sufficient notice before unwinding stimulus measures
- ECB's Lagarde: The market can test us as much as they want
- BOJ reduces frequency of JGB purchases for April
- Mitsubishi UFJ Securities says that it has closed positions "related to US client", loss is $270 million
- China looks into establishing a new bourse to attract overseas-listed firms - report
- UBS reportedly may face at least low-three-digit millions losses from Archegos Capital fallout
- Germany reports 17,051 new coronavirus cases, 249 deaths in latest update today
Markets:
- CAD leads, JPY lags on the day
- European equities mixed, S&P 500 futures up 0.1%
- US 10-year yields up 2.2 bps to 1.724%
- Gold flat at $1,685.11
- WTI down 0.2% to $60.46
- Bitcoin down 1% to $58,070
It was a rather quiet session overall as the market gears towards the month-end and quarter-end fixing/rebalancing period later today.
The dollar was mildly stronger earlier but gave up gains and is sitting slightly lower for the most part, with the yen leading losses throughout since Asian trading earlier.
USD/JPY backed off highs close to 110.90 and stuck around 110.60-70 levels while EUR/USD moved up from 1.1710 to 1.1748 and is holding just below that.
USD/CAD pushed a little lower from 1.2620 to 1.2590-00 levels but is hovering in and around its 100-hour moving average for the time being.
Likewise, AUD/USD moved up from 0.7590 to 0.7610-20 levels but is also finding itself caught around its 100-hour moving average ahead of North American trading.
In short, the dollar is losing a bit of ground but nothing to suggest a material turnaround in sentiment after having seen modest gains in trading yesterday.
Equities are keeping more tepid for the most part though Nasdaq futures are posting decent gains in the past hour or so, climbing by 0.6% now.
But all eyes today will be on month-end, quarter-end fixing/rebalancing flows and that might create more noise than offer any clear signals later in the day.
US president Biden will also be unveiling his $2.25 trillion stimulus later today but most of the details have already been communicated to the market in the past week, alongside the proposed tax increases.
