Forex Today: Cheering China's olive branch to Trump, Boris extends lead, EUR/USD faces test

Yohay Elam FXStreet

Here is what you need to know on Monday, November 25:

Trade: China will raise penalties for theft of Intellectual Property (IP) in a step that is seen as a gesture toward the US. The topic has been one of the sticking points in trade talks. According to the Global Times, a Chinese outlet, the world's largest economies are close to striking "Phase One" of the deal. Stock markets are on the rise, and the risk-on atmosphere is weighing on the dollar, the yen, and gold.

Hong Kong: Local elections in Hong Kong resulted in overwhelming support for the pro-Democracy camp in a calm atmosphere. President Donald Trump is yet to sign Congress' HK bill into law. Developments in the city-state have played a role in US-Sino relations.

EUR/USD is recovering after Friday's flash Purchasing Managers' Indexes showed that Germany's services sector is decelerating while the improvement in manufacturing still leaves it deep in contraction territory. The German IFO Business Climate is forecast to advance. See EUR/USD Forecast: Further falls due amid downtrend channel downbeat data and trade troubles.

Australian dollar: The Aussie is taking advantage of the news to recover to 0.68, but investors are cautious ahead of two critical speeches from the central bank, especially one from Phillip Lowe, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, on QE.

UK elections: The weekend opinion polls have continued showing double-digit leads for Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives, with one survey printing a 19-point advantage over Labour. Johnson presented his party's manifesto and vowed to bring the Brexit accord to parliament before Christmas.

Cryptocurrencies have extended their falls, with Bitcoin falling to $6,500. China's crackdown on exchanges has been taking its toll. The drama around Ruja Ruja Ignatova, aka "cryptoqueen" continues.

Author

Yohay Elam

FXStreet

Yohay is in Forex since 2008 when he founded Forex Crunch, a blog crafted in his free time that turned into a fully-fledged currency website later sold to Finixio.

EUR/USD climbs to daily highs near 1.1820

EUR/USD now picks up pace and advances to the area of daily peaks north of the 1.1800 barrier at the end of the week. The pair’s decent move higher comes against the backdrop of a generalised lack of direction in the FX galaxy and the mild offered stance in the US Dollar.

GBP/USD trims losses, retests 1.3460

After briefly challenging its key 200-day SMA near 1.3440, GBP/USD now manages to regain some balance and revisit the 1.3460 zone on Friday. Cable’s pullback comes as the selling pressure on the Greenback gathers traction, reigniting some recovery in the risk-linked space.

Gold flirts with four-week highs past $5,200

Gold extends its rebound, climbing for a third consecutive session and pushing back above the $5,200 mark per troy ounce on Friday. The move higher continues to draw support from lingering geopolitical tensions and the ongoing uncertainty surrounding US trade policy, both of which are keeping safe-haven demand firmly in play.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple consolidate with short-term cautious bullish bias

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple are consolidating near key technical areas on Friday, showing mild signs of stabilization after recent volatility. BTC holds above $67,000 despite mild losses so far this week, while ETH hovers around $2,000 after a rejection near its upper consolidation boundary.

Breaking: US and Israel attack Iran, risk aversion to sweep global markets

Early Saturday, United States (US) President Donald Trump announced that the US had begun “major combat operations” in Iran, following Israel’s pre-emptive missile attacks against Tehran.

Starknet unveils strkBTC, shielded Bitcoin transactions on Ethereum Layer 2

Starknet, the Ethereum Layer 2 network developed by StarkWare, today announced strkBTC, a wrapped Bitcoin asset that introduces optional shielding while preserving full DeFi composability.