The USD is mostly stronger. It’s Friday
As North American traders enter for the day (and for the final day of the week), the anxiety about US/China relations have taken control once again. As the US moves to block Huawei chip purchases, the Chinese Global Times is saying “If the US further blocks key technology supply to Huawei, China will activate the “unreliable entities” list, redistrict or investigate US companies such as Qualcomm, Cisco and Apple , and suspend the purchase of Boeing airplanes”. The escalation continues and that has equities trading lower. The JPY and US is gathering the flight to safety flows and make them the strongest of the majors. The NZD and AUD are the weakest. The GBP is also weaker on Brexit concerns.
It is Friday and with tensions escalating in China, it may lead to some squaring up flows. So be aware for some choppy conditions (especially around fixing time).
The ranges and changes are mixed. The EURUSD in the USDCHF we have a 27 and 22 pip trading ranges. That is not a lot. The other pairs ranges although large are still less than the 22 day averages. The US dollar is trading at the highest level verse the GBP, CAD, AUD and NZD as North American traders enter. It is near unchanged vs. the EUR and the CHF. The JPY pairs are all trading near or at session lows as the day begins.
In other markets:
- Spot gold is trading trading up $1.86 or 0.11% at $1732.10
- WTI crude oil futures for July delivery is trading up $0.54 or 1.94% at $28.42. The June contract is up $0.72 or 2.56% at 28.25
In the premarket for US stocks the futures are implying a lower opening
- Dow industrial average -276 points
- S&P index -33 points
- NASDAQ index -140 points
In the US debt market, yields are lower once again (yesterday the 30 year fell -4.6 bps) with the 30 year yield leading the way again at -2.8 basis points. The yield curve is continuing to flatten with the 2-10 year spread narrowing to 45.86 basis points versus 47.48 basis points at the close yesterday.
In the European debt market the benchmark 10 year yields are trading mostly lower with the Italy yield at +0.3 basis points the only positive yield change. The UK yields at -2.1 basis points is the weakest of the major countries.