Daily Currency Update
USD - United States DollarThe dollar is down today against the euro, the Great British Pound, the Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar against the backdrop of COVID-19 and China-US trade tensions. EUR/USD continued its drive higher during the Asian session, breaking above 1.17 for the first time since September 2018. For now, we expect the EUR/USD pair to continue to climb where the 1.18 handle looks to be a possible target this week.This week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference after the Fed’s two-day meeting. So far, the market expects rates to be near zero through 2022. Of course, any deviation from this extreme expectation would be a surprise on the ‘hawkish side’ and will bring support to the USD.
Key Movers
GBP/USD opened Monday morning on the rise again, peaking to 1.2846 during the Asian session. The pound's rally will be watched with caution though as Brexit talks stalled last week over the chances of securing a free trade agreement, with Brussels deeming it "unlikely", but London holding out hope one could be reached in September. This mixed with other euro positive news has prevented GBP/EUR moving in a similar direction to GBP/USD, the pair has fallen from last week’s high of 1.1102 down to 1.0950 where we currently trade at the time of writing.The Australian Dollar finished the week above 70 US cents for the first time this year and hit 15-month highs against the Greenback. The pair finally pushed through the psychological 70 US cent resistance level as testing on multiple occasions since June. It was multiple fiscal policy approvals by both the Australian Government and European Union leaders providing the catalyst for the local currency to hit highs of 0.7183 on Wednesday evening.
Expected Ranges
- USD/CAD: 1.337 - 1.342 ▼
- USD/AUD: 1.398 - 1.410 ▼
- GBP/USD: 1.278 - 1.29 ▼
- EUR/USD: 1.164 - 1.178 ▼