Summary:
- US dollar is the weakest currency within G10 basket, while risk-off-related currencies are in demand
- European equities crash, German DAX (DE30 on xStation5) dragged down by ProSiebenSat1 (PSM.DE)
- German 10Y yield on the rise while its US counterpart stays flat, the spread steepens and supports of the common currency
Thursday’s session across the FX market has been eventful so far, the US dollar is dropping against its all peers in the G10 basket while the JPY and CHF are in demand possibly due to a risk-off mode. On top of that, the euro is gaining as much as 0.35% at the time of writing being underpinned by the bond market as the German 10Y yield is climbing more than 4bps while the US one stays broadly flat. The NZ dollar has already erased its overnight gains following the RBNZ meeting and along with the Aussie is among the weakest currencies in the G10 group. Otherwise, the account of the last month Riksbank meeting was published earlier today and brought the Swedish currency slightly higher. The minutes underlined that domestic economic activity is strong while CPI inflation has risen along with inflation expectations close to the 2% objective. It’s worth highlighting that declines on the EURUSD are supported by the bond market.
The beginning of trading has been very benign following the successful session across the pond and upbeat moods in Asian markets. However since then upbeat moods have evaporated and for that reason the DE30 is losing almost 1% which is being dragged down by ProSiebenSat1 (PSM.DE) plunging ca. 10% after the company has revised its 2017 earnings outlook down. Besides, the US futures point to a bleak open as well which if so could precipitate drops across the old continent.
Donald Trump could be in Asia but the Tax Reform is the story number one in the US politics. In this analysis we outline the key tax proposal, possible hurdles in a legislative process and affected markets: US500 and USDJPY.
Volatility on Bitcoin was quite wild on Wednesday afternoon as the price spiked and slumped thereafter. Either way the price managed to establish its fresh all-time high (on xStation5 platform) at circa $7860. On the other hand we got another dismal comments concerning Bitcoin this time from Nouriel Roubini who is better known as “Dr. Doom”. In a interview with Business Insider Poland he voiced bearish views on the cryptocurrency calling the ongoing price gains “a gigantic speculative bubble”.
Looking forward, the US session is going to bring two less relevant releases but some central bank speakers could reinvigorate traders later in the day as many speeches are still ahead.