The dollar surged higher in yesterday’s trade as month end flows hit the market. The greenback gained against all the major currencies but we saw particular strong moves against the JPY and SEK with the Usd/Sek hitting a new 2018 high. End of month rebalancing was pointing towards dollar buying but the move really got going during the US afternoon session with the USDX is now trading back above 90.00 continuing it’s recent see-saw trading pattern.
Elsewhere in the markets we had a more settled day in the equities although the tech sector still remains under pressure, with the Nasdaq finishing the day -0.8%. The 10-yr treasury yields held below 2.8 percent with a stronger result for US GDP data (2.9% against exp 2.7%) and core PCE numbers remaining unchanged at 1.93%.
For what seems like the first time in a while we had no fresh news on the bubbling global trade situation and the currency market in particular has reacted with more ‘risk on’ moves, albeit helped by strong month end flows. However, the market will continue to remain wary of further developments on that front as we move through the trading sessions and liquidity starts to thin ahead of the long weekend.
Looking ahead to today’s trading and it’s quiet in terms of economic releases in the Asian session, but we do get some tier 1 action later in the day. In the London time zone with the UK Current Account data due and we have the Canadian GDP numbers due out at the start of the New York day.