Forex Today: Fears remain the same, USD makes the most out of it

Valeria Bednarik FXStreet

What you need to take care of on Wednesday, March 1:

USD reverse early losses and finished the day unevenly across the FX board. Correlations were off amid month-end flows, although the risk-averse sentiment remained the same. Most European indexes finished the day in the red, while Wall Street ended mixed.

The focus was on higher-than-anticipated inflation in Spain and France, boosting speculation the ECB will continue on the tightening path for longer than expected. Also, US Consumer Confidence fell for a second consecutive month in February, taking its toll on the Greenback. On a positive note, the report also showed inflation expectations decreased from the previous month.

EUR/USD peaked at 1.0644, but turned south during the American afternoon and now hovers around 1.0590.

The GBP/USD pair surged to 1.2143 on news the EU and the UK reached a deal over trade rules in Northern Ireland, the so-called “Windsor Framework,” meant to fix the issues resulting from the Northern Ireland Protocol. The pair later gave up to USD demand and now trades at around 1.2050.

AUD/USD is little changed on a daily basis, trading at around 0.6730. Australia will publish Q4 GDP figures early on Wednesday.

USD/CAD surged and stands near an intraday high of 1.3632 as Canada's GDP unexpectedly shrank 0.1% MoM in December. The country reported null annual growth in the last quarter of 2022, much worse than the 1.5% advance expected.

Weak stocks and easing US government bond yields weighed on USD/JPY, down on Tuesday and currently at around 136.10.

Gold jumped on demand for safety, and is currently hovering around $1,828 a troy ounce. Crude oil prices advance, with WTI now changing hands at $76.80 per barrel.

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Author

Valeria Bednarik

FXStreet

Valeria Bednarik was born and lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her passion for math and numbers pushed her into studying economics in her younger years.

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