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Forex Today: Dollar hit by month-end fixing

What you need to know on  Friday,May 1st:

  • Most markets will remain closed amid the celebration of Labour Day. The US will work as normal, as the country celebrates it in  a different date.
  •  The ECB had a monetary policy meeting, and made minor twists to its current policy, as it left rates unchanged while easing TLTRO conditions, by reducing interest rates between June 2020 and June 2021. It also announced a new lending program, meant to support the economy through the pandemic. President Lagarde acknowledged the EU is going an unprecedented contraction and that the Union’s GDP may fall between 5%-12% this year.
  • EU’s Q1 GDP came in at -3.3%, worse than anticipated. Nevertheless, the EUR/USD pair surged to 1.0972, ending the day not far below this last. The dollar sold-off ahead of London close amid month-end fixing. GBP/USD also surged to flirt with monthly highs in the 1.2640 price zone.
  • The USD/JPY jumped to 107.30, despite Wall Street closed in the red. US data disappointed with 3.84M people filing for unemployment last week, and personal spending plunging by 7.5%.
  • Gold edged lower settling around $1,690 a troy ounce. WTI jumped ahead of the close and finished the day at $19.00 a barrel.
  • Crypto Today - Retracement phase in full flow after yesterday's impressive rally

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