Forex Today: King Dollar keeps leading

FXStreet Team FXStreet

What you need to know on Monday, May 18th:

The dollar closed the week with a strong note, despite reporting on Friday that Retail Sales fell by 6.4% in April, the largest slump on record. The Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index beat expectations, printing 73.7 in May.

The EUR/USD pair closed the week as it started it, a handful of pips above the 1.0800 mark. News over the weekend showed that German EU parliamentarian Weber said that he favours declaring a twelve-month ban on Chinese investors who want to buy European firms.

The pound was the worst performer, undermined by Brexit woes. The UK and the EU, both reported a deadlock in talks, amid disagreement on the EU’s demand for a level playing field. Andrew Haldane, Bank of England's Governor, said that “there are other options beyond that, or alongside that, that we're looking at as well,” when referring to negative interest rates. He also discussed the use of QE, although he later clarified that he was not implied policymakers are poised on any of those options.

Commodity-linked currencies fell on Friday and closed the week with a soft tone against the greenback, despite oil and gold posted substantial weekly gains. WTI settled just below $30.00 a barrel, while spot gold hit a multi-year high of 1,751.75 a troy ounce.

US indexes settled on Friday near its daily highs but remained in the red weekly basis. The market’s sentiment continued to fluctuate between fears of economic downturns and hopes on reopenings. Treasury yields remained depressed throughout the week.

Bitcoin Price Analysis: $10K still in sight amid a descending channel breakout

Author

FXStreet Team

FXStreet

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.

AUD/USD bulls regain control above 0.6950 amid USD retreat

AUD/USD regains traction and extends the previous day's bounce from the weekly low, aiming for 0.7000 in Asia on Friday. The overnight pullback in US bond yields keeps the US Dollar below an 18-month high, which in turn offers some support to the pair. Meanwhile, hawkish RBA expectations also keep the major underpinned.

USD/JPY holds gains near 158.00 after Japan's weak Household Spending data

USD/JPY clings to gains around 158.00 after data showed on Friday that Japan's Household Spending fell for the ninth straight month, undermining the Japanese Yen. Meanwhile, the US Dollar remains depressed as the overnight fall in US bond yields counters a hawkish Fed and geopolitical uncertainties, could cap any downside in the pair.

Gold remains range-bound below $4,200

Gold has given up some ground after an initial bullish attempt to reach weekly highs, returning to below the $4,200 mark per troy ounce on Friday. The US Dollar’s strong upside momentum, combined with rising US Treasury yields across the curve, seems to keep further gains in the yellow metal under scrutiny.

Has Bitcoin really escaped the macro forces it was built to fight?

Over 17 years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto designed Bitcoin (BTC) on the back of a global financial crisis as an alternative to the global monetary system outside the control of central banks, governments and traditional intermediaries. This raises a key question: has Bitcoin really become independent of the macroeconomic forces it was built to challenge?

The Euro is not the sick man of Europe. France's bond market is

EUR/USD remains under pressure, near the 17-month low of 1.1161 reached on Monday. The pair has lost more than 7% since its yearly peak, as concerns over France's public finances increasingly weigh on the single currency. But behind the weakness of the Euro (EUR), the problem does not necessarily lie with the European economy as a whole.