Forex news from the European trading session - 9 July 2020
Headlines:
- Hong Kong says to tighten virus restrictions starting from 11 July
- HK reports highest daily jump in local coronavirus cases since the pandemic began
- EU reportedly to back Croatia, Bulgaria in first step to join the euro
- Tokyo governor Koike: It is possible that virus infection numbers will rise
- China says that may take action as Australia violated non-interference rule
- Japanese government says no change to plans to relax event restrictions tomorrow
- Germany May trade balance €7.1 billion vs €7.0 billion expected
- BOJ cuts assessment for all 9 Japanese regions in latest quarterly report
- Tokyo reportedly finds over 220 new coronavirus cases, highest daily record
- New Zealand says to review its relationship settings with Hong Kong
- Australia: Victoria records another 165 new coronavirus infections in latest update
Markets:
- GBP leads, JPY lags on the day
- European equities mixed; E-minis up 0.1%
- US 10-year yields down 1.3 bps to 0.651%
- Gold flat at $1,808
- WTI down 0.3% to $40.78
- Bitcoin down 0.3% to $9,401
It was a largely quiet session once again, with investors awaiting Wall Street for further direction later today alongside the next round of US weekly jobless claims.
The risk mood was more tepid as we see European stocks trade more mixed and US futures kept close to flat levels for the most part. That gave very little for currencies to work with during the session as overall changes stay more muted.
The pound is slightly higher with cable hovering around 1.2630-50 levels for the most part but other dollar pairs are little changed as trading ranges stayed more modest.
EUR/USD began the session higher at 1.1360-70 before slipping to a low of 1.1316 but is now keeping near unchanged on the day. AUD/USD and NZD/USD tried to test resistance at 0.7000 and 0.6580-85 respectively but those levels held firm.
USD/CAD is keeping a little lower but support from the 200-day moving average at 1.3500 is also holding for now, leading to little change in general during the session.
The only relevant news were Tokyo and Hong Kong recording their biggest one-day rise in virus cases and it will be interesting to see how that pairs up with the latest updates from the US later today; and how the market will digest the headlines in the session ahead.