After closing the week in what can be considered a mixed way, down against the EUR and the JPY, but up against some of its major rivals, the United States Dollar is looking forward to another slow week on the market.
More and more “victims”
Commodity-linked currencies also suffered on Friday, following the plunge on Wall Street, so their evolution will also be very interesting to follow over the next few days.
The US April ISM Manufacturing PMI came in at 41.5 down, a significant decrease, considering its previous value of 49.1, but above the expected value of 36.9. On the other side, the sub-components had a disappointing evolution, especially the employment one, which plunged to 27.5.
President Donald Trump threatened once again to impose new tariffs to China, following the miss-handling of the coronavirus outbreak, a statement which, as expected, had an impact on the market sentiment. Therefore, Wall Street closed deep in the red, following the dismal earning reports.
Europe looks optimistic
Over in Europe, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted he remains optimistic about the COVID-19 situation, claiming that the kingdom is “past the peak and on the downward slope.” However, it’s still unknown if the UK will be able to relax the lockdown measures anytime soon, as an extended economic setback looks inevitable now.
On Friday, gold prices appeared to begin recovering ground, amid a new wave of risk aversion, as spot gold settled at around $1,700.00.
Finally, US crude oil managed to finally settle just below $20.00 a barrel, following a report from Baker Hughes, claiming that the number of active rigs declined for the seventh week in a row, to 408 from 465 in the last week.
