FxPro Daily Insight for February 18

Market overview

Equity markets are declining after Apple said it would not meet the revenue guidance for the March quarter. This report returned to the market the fear of the impact of the virus.

On FX, the dollar index jumped to 33-month highs, and EURUSD fell below 1.0800 on the contrast of European and US data: ZEW’s German business sentiment index plunged from 26.7 to 8.7 (vs 20.0 expected), while the US Empire State Manufacturing jumped from 4.8 to 12.9 (vs 5.1 expected).

Commodity-linked currencies are leading the decline on Tuesday again. The British pound is “above market” as new report show claimant count grew by 5.5K against 20.2K expected. Gold jumped above $ 1,590, again at the highs of the year. Crude Oil had been losing 2% so far on Tuesday but turned upward after optimistic data from the US. Brent has strengthened by $0.5 in the last half hour to $56.7.

Important events, GMT (Exp.):

19:00 US !! FOMC Member Neel Kashkari Speaks 09:30 UK !!! Consumer Price Index (1.7% y/y) 13:30 Ca !! Consumer Price Index (2.3% y/y) 13:30 US !! Housing Starts (1415K)