WHO's Tedros: Pandemic remains a public health emergency of international concern

Eren Sengezer FXStreet

The coronavirus pandemic remains a public health emergency of international concern, World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday.

Additional takeaways

"Will reconvene COVID-19 Emergency Committee again in 90 days, or sooner if needed."

"WHO has grave concerns about the potential virus could have as it starts to accelerate in countries with weaker health systems."

"Will work with countries and partners to enable essential travel for pandemic response, and to gradually resume normal passenger travel."

"January 30 declaration of global emergency was enough time for the rest of the world to respond because we only had 82 cases and no deaths outside of China."

"WHO used the days before declaring a global emergency to go to China to learn more about virus, win ground-breaking agreement with China for who-led investigation."

Market reaction

Risk-off flows continue to dominate the financial markets on Friday. As of writing, Wall Street's main indexes were erasing between 1.2% and 3.15% on a daily basis.

Author

Eren Sengezer

FXStreet

As an economist at heart, Eren Sengezer specializes in the assessment of the short-term and long-term impacts of macroeconomic data, central bank policies and political developments on financial assets.

GBP/USD off highs, back to 1.3620

GBP/USD remains slightly on the defensive at the end of the week, receding to the low 1.3600s after hitting fresh tops past 1.3670 earlier in the day. Cable’s correction comes after two daily gains in a row and amid a tepid advance in the Greenback, while poor UK data also accompany the downside.

EUR/USD treads water below 1.1700

EUR/USD now trades with modest losses around 1.1670 following another unsuccessful atempt to advance past 1.1700 the figure in a convincing fashion. The pair’s decline follows a maginal rebound in the US Dollar as market participants continue to assess recent US data as well as developments from the US bond market.

Gold trims gains, recedes to the sub-$4,600 area

Gold rapidly leaves behind Thursday’s inconclusive price action and advances markedly on Friday, briefly surpassing the $4,600 mark per troy ounce to hit three-month peaks. Meanwhile, the precious metal’s solid performance comes despite marginal gains in the buck coupled with another day of rising US Treasury yields across the curve.

Crypto Today: Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP bulls accelerate rally amid rising ETF inflows

The cryptocurrency market remains bullish on Friday, led by Bitcoin’s surge above $77,000. Altcoins, including Ethereum and Ripple, mirror BTC’s positive outlook, trading near $2,400 and $1.35, respectively.

Week ahead – Fed’s Jackson Hole and Nvidia earnings to dictate markets

Kevin Warsh to make his Jackson Hole debut amid confusing messaging. But a major hawkish surprise unlikely after bond market intervention. Nvidia earnings to also determine market direction as stock rally cools.

$20 billion offered, $2 billion taken: Why Treasury doubled its buyback cap

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.