Forex Today: Slow start to another busy week

FXStreet Team FXStreet

What you need to know on Monday, May 4th:

The American dollar closed Friday mixed, down against its EUR and the JPY but up against other major rivals. Commodity-linked currencies were the ones that suffered the most, as Wall Street plunged.

The US April ISM Manufacturing PMI came in at 41.5, down fro the previous 49.1 but above the expected 36.9. The sub-components, however, were quite disappointing, particularly the employment one, which plunged to 27.5.

US President Trump menaced to impose fresh tariffs on China amid the miss-handling of the coronavirus outbreak, weighing on the market’s sentiment. Wall Street closed deep in the red, further undermined by dismal earnings reports.

UK PM Johnson was optimistic about the coronavirus situation, as he tweeted that the kingdom is “past the peak and on the downward slope.” Nevertheless, it is quite unlikely that the UK will lift the lockdown anytime soon, suggesting an extended economic setback ahead.

Gold prices recovered ground on Friday amid renewed risk aversion. Spot gold settled at around $1,700.00.

US crude oil settled just below $20.00 a barrel after Baker Hughes reported the number of active rigs declined for a seventh consecutive week to 408 from 465 in the previous week.

Cryptocurrencies spent Sunday consolidating near their recent highs. BTC/USD clings to modest gains above $9,000.

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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: The 0.7000 level holds the downside…for now

AUD/USD has clinched its fourth consecutive daily pullback on Thursday, coming closer to the key 0.7000 region while breaking below the critical 200-day SMA at the same time. The Aussie’s decline comes on the back of further gains in the Greenback in a context of rising yields and Fed rate hike bets.

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 bounces off lows, still below $4,300

Gold builds on Wednesday’s retracement, briefly slipping back below $4,250 per troy ounce to attempt a lacklustre rebound afterwards. The better tone in the US Dollar, rising US Treasury yields and expectation of extra rate hikes by the Fed continue to weigh on the precious metal in the latter part of Thursday’s NA session.

XRP is flashing three bullish signals heading into a historically weak October

XRP (XRP) is still flashing 3 bullish signals across its holders, derivatives, and ETF data. These signals come as the token gave back part of its September gains on Thursday. The token traded near $1.50 at press time, down about 6.3% over 24 hours, according to BeInCrypto Markets data. The pullback still leaves XRP up over 15.6% on the week, a gain that tracks a broader market rally.

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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.