Forex news for North American trade on August 10, 2021:
- US Senate passes $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill in 69-30 vote
- US July NFIB small business optimism index 99.7 vs 102.5 prior
- US sells 3-year notes at 0.465% vs 0.468% WI
- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigns
Markets:
- Gold down $1 to $1728
- US 10-year yields up 3 bps to 1.347%
- S&P 500 up 2 points to 4434
- WTI crude oil up $1.98 to $68.46
- CAD leads, CHF lags
The economic calendar was light today but there was a major milestone in US politics as Senate Republicans and Democrats got together to pass a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal. With 19 Republicans getting on board the margin of victory bodes well for some level of cooperation going forward, though that might be the optimist in me speaking.
The market hardly moved on the results but there was some modest equity buying, perhaps on the stronger-than-feared Republican support. US stocks hit a record once again but follow through was minimal and gains at the close were hardly anything to write home about.
In FX, the bid in the dollar continued in part due to the soft German ZEW survey, particularly the expectations component. That weighed on EUR/USD and helped to lift the dollar index.
The momentum from the jobs reports this week and last week also underpinned the dollar on almost all fronts. The exception was commodity currencies which were lifted by better sentiment and rebounding resources prices.
One potential hawkish catalyst is a scheduled speaking event with Evans but we're still waiting on those headlines and it's starting to look like they might not come.
In terms of levels, USD/CAD rejected the 200-day at 1.2572 in an outside bearish day as oil erased Monday's sharp initial decline.
