Home Daily Commentaries The Greenback gets back its safe haven status, reaching a 14-day high.

The Greenback gets back its safe haven status, reaching a 14-day high.

Daily Currency Update

USD - United States DollarThe U.S. dollar increased to its highest level since April 7th and the EUR/USD traded lower and touched an intraday low of 1.0812. The GBP/USD pair fell to a 14-day low of 1.2268 and the USD/CAD reached a 15-day high of 1.4265. The Greenback is acting as a safe haven along with the Japanese Yen, which strengthened against their Group-of-10 peers today. Commodity-linked currencies weakened as turbulence in oil markets and political uncertainty in North Korea, related to the health of Kim Jong Un, fueled another risk-off session.

Key Movers

The Kiwi dollar weakens versus all major peers after RBNZ Gov. Orr said that additional stimulus may be considered at its May review. At the same time, the Pound has fallen toward the 1.2300 handle, despite the UK taking solace in the jobless claims figure released overnight. It was forecasted that 170K would claim unemployment, however the real figure lies closer to 12K. Unfortunately, this data is considered 'laggy' as the next reading is expected to blow this figure out of the water. Brexit risks are also coming back into focus.The U.S. dollar continues to benefit from the crude oil crash as investors rush to safe haven positions in order to stabilise the rocking ship. It was probably a “once in a lifetime” event when crude oil futures collapsed to below zero for the first time ever as the deepening economic turmoil caused by the coronavirus crisis left traders desperate to avoid taking delivery of physical crude. Yesterday was a very unusual day, when the price for the May contracts wiped out all value, breaking every low for crude oil prices since 1946 and sending the Loonie to a 15-day low versus the U.S. dollar. It is trading at 1.4214 at the time of this writing. All of this took place, despite the U.S. considering putting as much as 75 million barrels into reserves. Trump said that oil is at, “...a level very interesting to a lot of people right now”.The Euro had remained fairly muted for a few weeks, as market participants wait to understand the full effect of the pandemic in the Eurozone; however, the EUR/USD pair is starting to pick up strength to the downside. With some of the most affected nations on earth, the Eurozone’s revised its 2020-2021 economic outlook and it doesn’t make a pretty reading. Italy, Germany, France, and Spain all are expecting a suppression in output moving forward, especially considering the financial trouble they began the crisis in.

Expected Ranges

  • USD/CAD: 1.4169 - 1.4359 ▲
  • EUR/USD: 1.0785 - 1.0902 ▼
  • GBP/USD: 1.2166 - 1.2350 ▼
  • AUD/USD: 0.6242 - 0.6315 ▼
  • NZD/USD: 0.5911 - 0.5985 ▼