GBP: April gains undone
The first days of May suggest the month will be risk-off for the GBP/USD. Here is why.
Tariff threats affect Chinese Yuan
On Monday, Donald Trump’s fresh threats to lift levies on Chinese exports sent ripples through financial markets, thus affecting risk sentiment and backing safe-haven assets.
Over the weekend, US leader announced his plans to lift levies on $200 billion in Chinese goods from the current 10% to 25%, thus sending global equities down and spurring the safe haven appeal of the Japanese currency.
On the contrary, the Chinese yuan headed south to this year’s minimum as investors worried over the impact of the tariff lift on the world’s number two economy. Both the Australian and New Zealand dollars, whose countries have close economic ties with this leading Asian country, demonstrated similar tumbles.
As a matter of fact, riskier currencies, including the Turkish lira, Russian ruble, and Mexican peso also headed south on Monday.
Estimating the greenback’s purchasing potential versus its primary peers the USD index managed to gain 0.1% concluding the trading session at 97.34.
Besides this, the weekly Commitment of Traders Report from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission uncovered that investors turned out to be the most bullish on the evergreen buck since December 2015, with bets of nearly $34.9 billion.
With Great Britain celebrating a bank holiday on Monday, the UK pound headed south by about 0.6% due to the fact the opposition Labour Party complained that UK Prime Minister Theresa May was disclosing details of their Brexit compromise, thus endangering an agreement.
Meanwhile, the common currency managed to hold its own versus the evergreen buck due to the fact euro zone business activity suddenly got better in April, while retail sales for March evaded an expected slump.
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Testimony by the Fed Chair Powell: upbeat for the USD?
The head of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell will testify on the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report on Tuesday and Wednesday
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ECB report is in focus
The European Central Bank will publish the monetary policy statement with the interest rate decision on January 21, at 14:45 MT time.
Markets await Biden to unveil "trillions dollars"
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USD came under selling pressure
The US dollar’s weakness offered a boost to emerging-market currencies and oil.
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