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Composed of a group of economic journalists and FX experts, the FXStreet content team produces and oversees all content published on FXStreet. It provides a purely journalistic approach to the Forex market.
GBP/USD trades in positive territory at around 1.3650 in the European session on Friday. Although Retail Sales data from the UK came in weaker than expected, the pair holds its ground, supported by the persistent US Dollar (USD) weakness following the Treasury Department's decision to boost long-term bond purchases earlier in the week.
EUR/USD consolidates its weekly gains at around 1.1700 in the European session on Friday following the mixed PMI prints from Germany. Investors await preliminary August PMI surveys for the Eurozone and the US, while the persistent USD weakness allows the pair to keep its footing.
Gold sticks to modest gains near its highest level since early June, touched earlier this Friday, and trades just above $4,550 heading into the European session. The commodity is looking to build on the breakout momentum above a technically significant 200-day Simple Moving Average amid a weaker US Dollar. Traders scaled back their bets on an immediate interest rate hike by the Fed after the latest US inflation data released last week signaled signs of cooling price pressures.
The biggest move in financial markets right now may be happening in an asset class that many equity and FX investors rarely watch closely: government bonds. Long-term yields have surged across the US, Europe, the UK and Japan, with several benchmarks reaching levels not seen for more than a decade.
The US Treasury moved off its own calendar on Wednesday, and that is the part worth sitting with. At 12:32 GMT, the department said it would at least double the size of liquidity support buyback operations in the 10-year to 20-year and 20-year to 30-year sectors, lifting the maximum from $2 billion per operation to at least $4 billion, effective September 9 and running to November 4.
