Wrap up: Risk improves, US retail sales eyed – Westpac

By FXStreet FXStreet (Bali) – Martina Song, FX Strategist at Westpac, summarizes Thursday’s action in the FX arena, a day in which risk appetite managed to improve, with the SP500 rising, US 30-yr bonds dropping, which eventually benefited the likes of the Aussie, Kiwi while punishing Yen and Euro.

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Crude squeezed from the lows in the Australia session yesterday, Brent rising from below $30/barrel ($29.70) and WTI just above. Both had gained around 2.5% since the previous close to a little above $31/bbl. This saw a rebound in US energy sector stocks (+4.5%) and the S&P500 closed +1.7%. European equities however were in the red, the Euro Stoxx down 1.6%. Metals were up as well with spot iron ore +1.8% to $40.22/tonne.

Outperformer AUD initially fell to a four-month low of 0.6910 during the London morning but reversed with the turnaround in global sentiment to near 0.7000, better reflecting yesterday’s strong jobs report which the currency had initially ignored. NZD also fell during the London morning, to 0.6419 (a three-month low), but the rebound was only to 0.6490. AUD/NZD thus rose from 1.0700 to 1.0800.

EUR slipped from 1.0900 to 1.0835 via 1.0943. The ECB minutes revealed some members continued to push for more …read more

Source:: FX Street