Biden romps in second Tuesday primaries

Six states hold primaries with 352 delegates.
Biden widens his lead winning the most populous states.
Democratic establishment coalesces around Biden.

Joseph Trevisani FXStreet

Former Vice President Joe Biden fortified his lead for the Democratic nomination winning states that Bernie Sanders took in 2016 and adding to his delegate advantage.

As of midnight on the East Coast Biden has won Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi and leads in Idaho.

Sanders is clinging to a 0.2% lead in Washington and is ahead by 14 points in North Dakota but with only 10% counted. In 2016 Sanders won Michigan and North Dakota and he needed wins tonight to hope to catch Biden in the delegate count.

Michigan had a third of the 352 delegates up for award this evening and the Sanders campaign had been hoping for a narrow win like 2016.

Next week the race moves to four states Illinois, Ohio, Florida and Arizona whose votes apportion 577 delegates. If Biden wins these elections the race could be all but over as there would be almost no chance that Sanders could win enough of the remaining delegates to overtake Biden.

The Democratic Party has begun to organize around the Biden candidacy following his victories in 10 of 14 contests in the Super Tuesday primaries. Failed competitors Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Michael Bloomberg and Andrew Yang have endorsed Biden.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren who exited the race last week after coming in third in her home state said today that she is not ready to make an endorsement.

Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard has not given up yet but she has earned only two delegates and the Democratic establishment is doing its best to ignore her candidacy.

The running delegate count from RealClearPolitics has Biden at 816 to Sanders’ 658 of the 1991 need for a first ballot victory.

Author

Joseph Trevisani

FXStreet

Joseph Trevisani began his thirty-year career in the financial markets at Credit Suisse in New York and Singapore where he worked for 12 years as an interbank currency trader and trading desk manager.

AUD/USD turns lower toward 0.7000 after mixed Australian jobs data

AUD/USD is losing ground toward 0.7000 in the Asian session on Thursday, following the release of the Australian August jobs report, which showed that the Unemployment Rate rose to 4.6% versus 4.5% expected, while Employment Change beat estimates, arriving at 39.5K. Traders also remain unnerved ahead of the critical Trump-Xi meeting.

USD/JPY keeps the red near 158.00 as Japanese Yen firms up

USD/JPY retreats from three-week highs and holds losses near 158.00 in the Asian session on Thursday. Surging Japanese bond yields lift the Yen amid looming intervention risks, while the US Dollar preserves overnight gains to a two-month high amid hawkish Fed bets and elevated US bond yields.

Gold struggles near one-week low as traders await Trump-Xi meeting amid Fed hike bets

Gold sticks to a negative bias for the second straight day, trading below the $4,300 mark or a one-week low during the first half of the European session as traders await a crucial meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Expectations for a major announcement are low, though market players will look for any progress on rare earths, technology restrictions, and an extension of the current US-China truce.

Bitcoin slips to $84,000 on rate hike bets – Worldcoin, Pepe lead losses

Bitcoin (BTC) price trades below $84,000 on Thursday, extending losses after a 2% decline the previous day. The pullback aligns with renewed inflation and rate-hike concerns, as US composite and services PMIs rose to 58.4 and 58.7 in September. Worldcoin (WLD) and Pepe (PEPE) recorded double-digit losses over the last 24 hours, emerging as the worst performers.

SNB leaves interest rates unchanged at 0%

Swiss National Bank leaves its key policy rates unchanged at 0%, as expected by market particiapnts. The key highlights of SNB’s monetary policy assessment are as followed: Banks' sight deposits held at the SNB will be remunerated at the SNB policy rate up to a certain threshold. SNB sees 2026 inflation at 0.7% (previous forecast was for 0.6%). The main risk to the economic outlook for Switzerland stems from developments in the global economy.

BoJ Recap: Not as hawkish as expected

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) raised its short-term interest-rate target to 1.25% from 1.00% in a 7-2 vote, marking another step in the normalisation of monetary policy and widely matching what everyone has been expecting for weeks.