Elsewhere, GBP outperforms today as focus fell on the BoE, seeing EUR/GBP continue to trend lower and break below the 0.7000 handle driven by hawkish comments by BoE’s Miles, who said that he expects inflation to converge towards the 2% target at the end of 2015. The release of the most recent BoE minutes revealed a 9-0 vote and while a number of MPC members see increasing inflation risks which are skewed to the upside, the minutes also warned that GBP strength could suppress inflation. The rhetoric released in the minutes are more or less a reiteration of the most recent MPC comments and as such proved to be somewhat uneventful, to see GBP continue its recent strengthening as the time of a BoE rate hike appears closer.
Looking ahead, this evening sees the RBNZ rate decision with market participants expecting a cut, while tomorrow sees UK retail sales, US weekly job numbers and comments from ECB’s Weidmann.
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AUD/USD holds above 0.6500 in thin trading
The Australian Dollar managed to recover ground against its American rival after AUD/USD fell to 0.6484. The upbeat tone of Wall Street underpinned the Aussie despite broad US Dollar strength and tepid Australian data.
EUR/USD comfortable below 1.0800 lower lows at sight
The EUR/USD pair lost ground on Thursday and settled near a fresh March low of 1.0774. Strong US data and hawkish Fed speakers comments lead the way ahead of the release of the US PCE Price Index on Friday.
Gold price finishes Thursday’s session set to reach new all-time highs
Gold price rallied during the North American session on Thursday and hit a new all-time high of $2,225 in the mid-North American session. Precious metal prices are trending higher even though US Treasury yields are advancing, underpinning the Greenback.
Bitcoin price extends retreat from $69K as old whales shift their holdings to new whales
Bitcoin price continues to move further away from the $69,000 threshold, gaining ground as BTC bulls hope for a retest of the $73,777 peak. This is because of the general assumption that clearing this blockade would set the tone for a reach higher, marking a new all-time high.
Bears have been standing before a steamroller so far this year
Despite a pushback on rate cuts from Christopher Waller, and what was supposed to be cautious trading sentiment ahead of critical US inflation data released later on Friday, the S&P 500 rose on Thursday, marking its best first-quarter performance in five years.