Forex news for North American trading on September 18, 2020:
- September US UMich prelim consumer sentiment 78.9 vs 75.0 expected
- Canada July retail sales +0.6% vs +1.0% expected
- Canada August Teranet house price index +5.7% y/y vs +5.5% prior
- US current account balance for 2Q -$170.5 billion vs. -$160 billion estimate
- Canada wholesale trade sales for July 4.3% vs. 3.5% estimate
- CFTC commitments of traders: Traders trim some of the EUR longs
- Baker Hughes US oil rig count 179 vs 180 prior
- Pelosi: Working out details on stopgap funding bill. Staying at $2.2 trillion for stimulus
- Fed's Bullard: Looks like rates going to stay low for quite a while
- Fed's Kashkari dissented because he wanted a stronger commitment to zero rates
- Fed's Bostic: Definitely seeing signs of the economy slowing
- CFTC commitments of traders: Traders trim some of the EUR longs
Markets:
- Gold up $6 to $1950
- WTI crude oil down 4 cents to $40.93
- US 10-year yields up 0.6 bps to 0.695%
- S&P 500 up 36 points to 3221
- NZD leads, GBP lags
Quadruple witching was the buzz on Friday and selling equities was the trade. They opened higher initially but fell shortly after the open for a time it got ugly before a late bounce.
Once again, the equity trade was largely ignored in FX. USD/JPY tracked higher after a slump in early European trading and finished down only fractionally on teh day.
Commodity currencies were a mixed bag with the loonie and Aussie struggling but NZD higher. The moves in all of them were modest.
The larger move was in cable after it ran into resistance at 1.30 and slumped from there to finish down a half-cent at 1.2924. The tone of the EU commentary wasn't as absolute as it was a week ago regarding the internal market bill, so I think there's an opening there but you'd hate to be caught on the wrong side of a weekend headline.
The euro was a passenger on Friday and is set to finish unchanged on a day where the trading range was 40 pips. The PMIs next week will be closely followed.
