Forex news for North American trading on July 31, 2020:
Markets:
- Gold up $16 to $1972
- WTI crude oil up 44-cents to $40.35
- US 10-year yields down 1 bps to 0.5347%
- CAD leads, NZD lags
The big story was the move in USD/JPY. It came after some serious jawboning and threats from top Japanese officials in Asia so it looks like intervention. It painted a huge outside day on the chart in a reversal to 106.00 from 104.19 at the lows. It leveled out after London went home.
Cable is down 6 pips late. It’s trying to stretch the incredible rally to 11 days in a row. Earlier that looked like a sure bet as it hit 1.3170 but selling hit hard on the London fix and it never recovered, slipping all the way to 1.3090.
USD/CAD also slumped into the London fix but keep an eye on the pair over the weekend on reports the US will put tariffs on Canadian aluminum.
Aside from the loonie, the commodity currencies were hit. I noted yesterday that seasonals for AUD and NZD are the worst of the year in August and both gave back all the previous day’s gains.
Notably, even with some life in the US dollar, gold had a strong day. Some of that was due to falling Treasury yields. They’re approaching some big levels with jobs week to come.