Daily Currency Update
USD - United States DollarThe United States dollar weakened across the board overnight as risk assets continued to climb despite the worsening Covid-19 news headlines. The US Dollar Index fell 0.42% yesterday to open this morning at 96.77. Nevertheless, the broad movement lower for the US dollar was relatively tempered when in comparison to movements in risk asset markets. The S&P500 rose 1.3% following China’s lead but risk aligned currencies didn’t quite claw back as much from the Greenback. Adding further support to the US dollar was a surprisingly positive US ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI which jumped to 57.1 in June from 45.4 the previous month.
Key Movers
Across the pond, the Euro was the best performer for the day, reaching a high of 1.1345 before receding late in the session to open at 1.1308. Following the rally in Asian equities, the Euro also found support from a better-than-expected result in European retail sales with the decline only coming in at -5.1% year on year. The Euro continued to take its direction from risk-aligned assets however and moderated later in the day as the US Dollar regained some ground.After making a play for 0.70, AUD/USD is lower on the announcement of the lockdown in Melbourne and with little top tier data this week to analyze it seems the spread of the virus will dictate currency moves with USD likely to gain should sentiment remain negative. Indeed, the euro which has shown strength of late has slipped a little this morning with EUR/USD back under 1.13 due to risk aversion. The move lower for the euro was likely given some extra impetus by German Industrial Production figures falling short of expectations this morning showing a 7.8% gain when 11% was the median forecast.
Expected Ranges
- USD/CAD: 1.352 - 1.359 ▲
- GBP/USD: 1.246 - 1.258 ▼
- EUR/USD: 1.126 - 1.133 ▼
- USD/AUD: 1.429 - 1.444 ▲